Falling In Love With Cats

By Raven Simons, Spring 2009

When I reminisce about my passion for felines both wild and domestic I remember a few key influences. My grandfather was passionate about animals and used to bring home critters he would find on the desert construction sites that he superintended. He would show me lizards, snakes, tarantulas, and other small creatures. I’d hold them and admire them for a day. He would then return them to their original home. I always wanted to keep them as pets, but he would always say that they were born, lived, and must remain free. He did get me a pet chipmunk, my first exotic.

I also used to love to watch Wild Kingdom and Daktari. I really enjoyed these shows. Loving Clarence the cross-eyed lion was when I decided that I wanted to have a pet lion. Looking forward to observing Jim Fowler’s adventures inspired me to some day become a naturalist in the field. Right now I don’t own a lion and my naturalist adventures tend to be via the internet or at FCF (Feline Conservation Federation) member facilities. I still keep hope in my heart.

As a young child I often lived with my maternal grandparents. My mom had a turbulent life and I’d end up there, often lonely. I was a curious child and this led me to visit around the neighborhood where I met Agnes, the Cat Lady. Agnes rescued stray, abandoned, neglected, and feral cats. Her husband built her a state of the art series of cat condos and an enclosed garage size structure for the cats she cared for.

I learned my first basic feline husbandry from Agnes. She taught me about cat politics; who got along with whom, which cats had special health issues and the care they needed, how to feed and clean litter boxes, play and love for enrichment, care of the elderly, and which cats just liked to be left alone.

I was a lonely little girl and Agnes always had time for me. We would read “Cats” and “Cat Fancy”. She would make me tea and special crepes. She taught me how to make crepes. She treated me as a person, not a little kid. One of the things that made me feel special is when her elderly grumpy cat that hated most people would come sit in my lap and let me gently pet her.

After I was married to my husband, we went back to my grandparent’s old neighborhood. I knocked on Agnes’s door and her husband answered. I asked about Agnes and he told me that some neighbor had complained a few years back about the cats. The city seized her cats and put them down. Agnes was dead within the year from cancer. I believe that she would still be alive if her cats had been left alone. The cats were not a nuisance, were clean, healthy, taken to the vet, did not stink, or make too much noise. Agnes was not mentally ill; she had a kind heart and loved cats.

I now work to my best ability to protect the right to responsibly own the pets of our choice. I support animal welfare, education, conservation, and research. It was mentioned to me by a fellow FCF member that Jim Sanderson believes the key to small cat survival is “an exotic cat in every home”. We all need to fight together against the massive wave of animal bans and work to reverse these bans in places where they exist. If we love our cats and every animal we owe it to them. I write this out of my love of cats and all animals.

Copyright © 2009 Raven Simons
Photo Copyright © 2009 Shapeshifting, INC.

 

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