Wednesday, August 01, 2007 Boarder cat By Leticia Suarez-Orendain
PEACHES ‘N Cream, a stray cat with creamy white fur except around her ear, which is marmalade in color, long ago found lodging in my Spartan house.
I don’t allow my "boarder" cat inside, except on certain days when she knows I want her to patrol the kitchen and the dining room as my “natural mouse repellent.”
My boarder (a stray cat that visits houses for some food, temporary shelter or company) doesn’t mind.
The transaction has worked well; she earns her keep. It includes a roof where she and her tomcat can make love calls, a driveway where she can sunbathe, the occasional food scraps when she works for me, and the catlike company we give each other, the preamble of all cats:
I will be here, but you can’t force me to sit at your foot like a dog.
I will show affection, but only when I want to.
I will condescend to acknowledge your presence, and you can call my name till you are hoarse, but I will not keep you company when I’m busy surveying my little world.
Peaches gave birth to three kittens a week ago and settled them behind an old piece of plywood leaning against the wall. Like all good mothers, she knows it’s a safe place.
She’s just a boarder cat, a nobody, but she gave me this prose poem for August:
A boarder cat chooses you; don’t kid yourself.
She first suddenly appears at your doorsteps one day near August,
Truly out of the bluest blue, she does A meow said tenderly, pink mouth half-open Eyes cast upward in open wonder, Softly green and mild, they never waver She longs to pierce the part of your heart The one you try to shield behind love for dogs, Macho toys, work, or harrumph-to-sentimentality Don’t try to hide. Deep inside every dog lover Is a closet cat-lover or lover of cat lovers Or plain lovers who can’t resist the chance To show off their mastery in love. Whatever it is you’re protecting, surely There’s tenderness in you That a boarder cat can unearth like no other. Oh, what a fitting inspector she makes Before she settles down: She scans your windows for escape holes from predators Takes note of kid’s clothes flapping in the breeze And rubs herself ingratiatingly against your bare legs to taste What kind of man you are, where you have been, why you exist. Your boarder cat could be an ebony feline Its wide eyes and huge grin never waning The black cat represents The universal child and his sense of wonder, Wherever his nine lives take him, The surrealism of the situations In which his escapades place him, He never feels ruffled. Or your boarder cat could be a marmalade Musketeer With black boots and hat, retractable claws for silver sword, Or she could be a tiger-skinned couch potato Who loves to steal the master’s meal. So, finding there’s some fish in your kitchen to feast on, A high perimeter wall from where she can survey the world, Your boarder cat begins to claim your house. She reclines, a fetching Francisco de Goya Maja, under the dappled sunlight In your driveway to get her vitamin D. Or daintily bathes, a Jean Antoine-Watteau’s Diana Bathing, Brushes her face with her paws, curled like cotton balls. She gets up at your arrival, seemingly to pay you homage, Not irritated by the rude interruption She doesn’t seem to mind being caught in dishevel Little by little she claims your life Her eyes follow in your dreams Your boarder cat has found a spot Right there where you hide when you are hurting.
