For the Love of Cats
by Al Fry from the May 2019 Wisp
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While many dog breeds wear their hearts on their sleeves, so to speak,
cats are not so social. Dogs will return almost any kindness with licks of
affection and loyalty.
Cats just seem to make up their own rules of time, place and show of affection. I suspect this might be carried over from their lifestreams having suffered some scary times from humans in the past.
Cat cruelty was quite severe from the 15th to 17th centuries. Millions of cats got slaughtered and mistreated. In France, seeing them burned alive and yowling was entertainment. When the great plagues came along, thousands of cats got blamed and were dispatched when the fleas were the tiny culprits.
Things got better in the 1800s, and some of the cat shows would draw thousands by the mid 1800s. Today there are more than 900 million dispatched every year by animal shelters from overpopulation problems.
This hardly makes a dent in the 600 million or so cats across the planet. “With much competition from dogs and other pets, cats have learned to make the right sounds for gaining their food. Instead of loud meows, purring puts across the idea that they are happy ... and this produces more affection from us.
Among themselves sounds are not so important and we can see their ears flatten when they are fearful. A raised and flicking tail can signal a sign of good intentions and affection. If we think the usual rubbing against us is affection, it’s our mistake. Cats have scent glands in their cheeks and they simply mark anything that they feel is theirs.
We humans fail to realize that we are unique in that we have an extra mind that we picked up when some renegade aliens mated with our ancestors.
Animals run on instinct that provides them with fight, flight or food reactions. Our priority guided minds prod us into seeking things such as money, power and yummy food when we don’t need such things.
Animals like cats simply respond to their body’s hunger signals with actions that worked in the past to provide food. Purring at a human works very well for them.
Leaving the food supply out all the time will greatly slow down this game.
Feral cats are usually taught by their mothers to view humans with suspicion, but socialization can come along if the trauma wasn’t too drastic. I recall a friend who had the most distant, fearful cat I ever saw. He had found it in a deep snowdrift where some eagle had evidently dropped it from a great height.
Like most animals, we can turn most cats into softies by handling them repeatedly when they are quite young. A friend’s magpie would love to peck the toes of sandal-wearing women when it grew up and saw them dance around under this incentive.
Cats’ instincts are more aligned with hunting for fun and seeing their prey come apart. Give them toys and they soon get ignored when they fail to come apart. This skill has saved them as later grain-growing civilizations saw them as mice catchers for them.
The Egyptians, and later the Asians, placed great value on cats and would not use them for food. Alas, when I’;m in some areas like the Philippines, I am offered dog meat.
While animals have group souls that allow them to wind up after death in their own group, there are seemingly exceptions. A “law bearer” I know sees various animals in trees (their spirit forms) these days. This indicates that there seem to be too few bodies for their spirits to find a suitable form for. I have heard that in a few cases animals with very close attachments to humans can come up with a more primitive human body in some of the more remote areas of Earth. However, this is taking us into areas I am unfamiliar with.
One of the unsolved mysteries of the animal kingdom is how many animals like cats find their way to far-away locations again. Birds have been found to use stars and even their egg shells as aids.
Dogs and fish we know can get helped by smell, but cats’ abilities are elusive, unless using an answer I got from a law bearer (Avatar) I once questioned. He explained that warm-blooded animals, including humans, have a built-in radar system. This feel field gets activated by emotionally charged thoughts that quickly alter chemicals in our bloodstreams. Since the blood is crystalline in nature, the resulting formations can reflect a radar-like energy to distant points.
This can bring back information to senders if correctly attuned. Cats have been found to be limited to around 10 miles in their “homing” instincts while Australian aboriginees — unruined by schooling—can sometimes locate water and game at even longer distances.
No, we don’t find this explanation in any studies or books that I know of!
Al Fry writes from Garden Valley, Idaho.
Feature Articles July 2019
Wispy Words
What about all the good stuff?
by Ann Ulrich Miller
One of Earth Star’s authors, Karen Weinant Gallob, wrote a cozy mystery novel several years ago (2006) that is titled All the Bad Stuff Comes in Threes. The wise words are spoken by a matronly woman character, dear to everyone’s heart, who starts off the story by discovering a dead body in her chicken shed while she is trying to find a gift to take to the ladies’ club luncheon.
The irony is that Alma, who is forgetful at 90 years old, dismisses the body as just another nuisance, but she prides herself for remembering at the last minute to bring a gift to the club meeting.
I’ve been reminded of Karen’s wonderful story because lately I’ve had “three bad things” occur. First, my microwave quit; then my garage door opener stopped working, and the latest issue is that my septic tank is full and may have a blockage.
Another old saying goes, “When it rains, it pours.” Well, after the drought we suffered in the Western U.S. last summer, this year’s moisture and abundant snowfall is truly a blessing for us all.
Nobody likes to have bad luck. Everyone wishes good luck on friends and family. I’ve had a lot of good luck in my life and I’m grateful for all the good things that I can claim. That’s not to say that bad things never happen to me, because obviously they do. I’m sure this is true for you too.
Whenever stuff I don’t like happens, I go through the usual pouting stage, where I complain and tell anyone who will listen about my woes. It doesn’t solve the problem, of course. In order to quickly change my mindset, I thank God for all the good things in my life.
And as soon as I start counting all those blessings, whether they are the people in my life, the fact that I have a nice job and can afford modest things, plus all of the wonderful experiences I’ve had ... as soon as I acknowledge the good stuff, the bad stuff suddenly becomes menial ... and problems are resolvable.
Another old saying goes, “When God closes a door, he opens a window.” Well, that is only true if you actually go to the window and open it. In other words, you need to be assertive and proactive when you find yourself in an unpleasant situation.
I’ve seen it as much as anyone else. I went through a divorce in my 30s, lost a beloved husband while in my 50s, experienced being fired from a job I loved, faced rejection many times, and lived many years without a steady income. But what pulled me through the rough times was my attitude.
To turn things around when your life goes sour, you need to maintain an attitude of gratitude. As long as you keep focusing on all the good stuff, the bad stuff that happens soon dissipates and when you overcome those situations or events, you become much stronger because of it.
At the time of this writing, my microwave has been fixed, and my septic tank is scheduled to be pumped out and inspected during the first week of May. My garage door opener will be replaced within two more weeks, but in the meantime I can manually raise and lower it, so at least my car is inside at night.
There is so much good stuff in the world, despite all the bad stuff you hear about on the news and on line. This is what Wisp is about, after all, bringing you a variety of fun news and pictures to make you smile or think about things other than thoughts of hate or violence.
Focus on the positive and you will have positive things happen. It’s as simple as that.
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Ann Ulrich Miller, publisher of Wisp and The Star Beacon, writes novels for young people and adults. Her latest novel is The Dream Chasers, an adult thriller/romance set in southern Colorado. She recently returned with her partner, Doug, from a week n Pagosa Springs, where they met in 2009.