Photography And Half-Thoughts By Mitchell Hegman

...because some of it is pretty and some of it is not.

Sunday, January 8, 2017

20 Pounds of Housecat Under 12 Pounds of Footstool

20 pounds of housecat, Splash, has taken on a new habit.  He spends a substantial part of his day scrunched under that girl’s footstool.  If that girl moves the footstool to a new spot in the living room, Splash will eventually end up there underneath it.
To begin, cats are wary.  They operate on the assumption the sky will fall on them at any moment.  The footstool, I suppose, will offer some protection should the sky abruptly fall.
While most dogs would immediately jump up and run off to investigate an errant noise in the house, most cats will instinctively shrink back at first.  Some cats may go investigate after an extended silence.  Some cats may not bother to investigate at all.  A cat may follow you if you go investigate the noise, but they are more apt to watch you leave and hope you return with food for them.
Housecats find comfort and security when cradled away in small spaces.  Boxes are perfect.  A female cat that I once lived with sometimes slept in one of our bathroom sinks.  I had another cat that crawled under my blankets to sleep with me.  I am sure you have seen zillions of photographs of sleeping cats on the internet.
One of the reasons I like cats is because I feel a sense of well-being when I find 20 or 40 pounds of housecat sleeping peacefully in various places and various poses in my house.  I suppose you could say a sleeping cat in my presence is something rather opposite of an alarm.  They are an indication that all is well.  I feel safe while they are there, snuggled into some small space alongside me.
Should something crash in another room or the doorbell ring…well, suddenly I am on my own.

--Mitchell Hegman

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