Cats and friends

Haiku to my Cats

Jewel-eyed felines,

Haughty stalkers, yowl and purr,

Gently knead my heart.

Yesterday morning, after staying out all night, Tosca, the older of our two cats and mother of Luna, sat on the garden-waste bin and shivered. My husband spotted the shivering first and alerted me to it; he was concerned. He opened the door to let Tosca in and she ignored the food in her bowl, crisscrossed her way through the kitchen to a spot outside my study, and sat, staring at me with soulful eyes. Usually she jumps onto the back of my chair, drapes herself around my shoulder and purrs loudly into my ear. My husband had noticed a slight stiffness in her back legs, so I approached her to take a look. As I reached out to stroke her, Tosca growled. Something was wrong. We debated whether she had fallen from a tree or a roof – she is an adventurous cat and climbs our willows to the very top – or if she had been kicked or driven at by some nasty human, or even attacked by another cat or a fox. There were no signs of injury, no wounds or blood, so I tried to pick her up, to hold her in my arms and comfort her – she allows me to do this as she considers me to be her human – but no, another throaty growl warned me off. She walked stiffly into the study and gazed at the chair, but wouldn’t jump onto the cushion, her favourite spot for curling up to sleep. My husband had to leave for work, so I kept an eye on her. Eventually she made her way slowly up the stairs and somehow climbed onto my side of the bed, her head almost on my pillow, where she remained all day. Luna joined her, taking her place at the foot of the bed. Tosca didn’t eat until late in the evening and then returned to the bed, where she stayed all night, curling into the crook of my knees before I went to sleep. She is still there as I write. Luna, on the other hand, has been out all night and just returned for her breakfast.

True friends, I believe, are like cats. They will always seek you out, and you them; it seems as if it were only yesterday that you last got together. You laugh at the same things, talk about everything and nothing, forgive each other for not meeting up sooner. I have several friends I might not see for years, some live in other parts of the UK and others in different parts of Europe, but as soon as we get together, time melts away. So I wrote this haiku:

Haiku to Old Friends

Despite decades and

Miles between us, yesterday

Is still our today.