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Chaotic Cat Chronicles: How Mr. Meow and Tabby Won Over Non-Cat People

My mom and sister flew in from Denver to come visit me last weekend before we move back to Jacksonville. They’d had such a good time when they’d come back in October going to the Tennessee Aquarium and Mammoth Cave that they wanted to come back to do stuff we hadn’t had time to do that trip. (Like Rock City, the Lost River Cave, and Cheekwood Botanical Garden.)

They also were curious to meet their newest granddaughter and niece: Tabby.

What’s particularly funny about that is neither one of them are cat people. It’s not that they hate cats –they just don’t like them very well. When they’ve had pets, they’ve preferred dogs.

However, before Tabby came along and we just had Mr. Meow, my mom (known as Grandma Dorothy to Murph, Kitty, and now Tab) took a shine to him. It all started back around Thanksgiving 2000.

We’d moved to Jacksonville the year before, Budly had passed so we were dogless, we’d bought a house and my mom hadn’t been out to visit us yet. I kept telling her about the cat I’d found the year before, but she didn’t really care.

Until she met him and saw how handsome he was. And talented. On command, Mr. Meow would position himself in front of the air return vent in the kitchen and serenade us with an original ditty. My mom just thought that was too cute. As was his antics of chasing after a shoelace. My mom drug that around for him constantly and delighted in this new form of animal playtime. (She had no idea you could play with a cat.) From them on when we talked on the phone she was sure to ask how “her cat” was doing.

So Mr. Meow broke through the non-cat person barrier and wiggled his way into my mom’s heart, but my sister (known as Aunt Coco to the crew) wasn’t swayed. She’s pretty leery of most cats, including Mr. Meow. She wants to like him, but doesn’t trust him. (For good reason. He’s full of cattitude and he’s not afraid to use it.)

However, Tabby is a little butter-up buttercup and decided the moment she saw her that Aunt Coco was hers and hers alone. Mr. Meow came to say hello, but Tabby wouldn’t let him. She wound around my sister’s ankles beeping at him to stay away in the way she does.

The first morning they were here, Tabby marched right into my sister’s room, hopped up on her bed and had love snugger bugger time with her for an hour. A ritual that was repeated every morning except one, when my sister woke up before the rest of us and went downstairs to read a book and have coffee.

She also followed my sister to the bathroom and decided she did not like one bit being shut out while my sister was on the potty. She’d reach under the door desperate to find a way in.

Well, all this attention thawed my sister’s frosty cat exterior and though I doubt she’ll ever admit it, her eyes were mighty moist when it came time to say goodbye to the crew and head for the airport. As was my mom at having to say goodbye to “her” cat.

So we all had a good visit and now both cats can boast a non-cat person conversion.

Author’s Note: I don’t have pictures developed yet (I am still old school with my film camera), but as soon as I do I will post the pics of Aunt Coco and Tabby.