My cat Louie is peculiar. Not in the way every cat is peculiar. Sure, he does cat things like double-back-flips with a half-twist while chasing a ribbon, and licking the skin clear off my arms while purring, but I’m talking about communication.
Louie, not unlike Churchill, is a great communicator. He only has one word in his vocabulary, “Meow,” but he knows how to adjust pitch and tone and make it sound like different words. He also uses his body language to communicate what he wants. Usually, he’s just announcing his presence in the room, lost downstairs (he does that frequently-he’ll lose track of me as I head upstairs, and I’ll hear him 30 seconds later yowling like his world was ending until I call him), or demanding that I play with him from high atop his perch on the windowsill.
The other night, he was so insistent that I took his photo, and you can really tell that he is not just saying hello. He is listing his motherfucking DEMANDS and WILL NOT be ignored!
A friend commented on this photo in my Flickr stream, which got me thinking. Here is my response:
HAHA! That got me thinking, what WOULD Louie say if he had a soapbox to speak from?!
When I was little, I remember wishing I could get up on top of something and yell, “HEY!! EVERYBODY IN THE WORLD!!” and have everyone listen to me. Then in 2nd grade, another kid in my class did just that-he got up on his desk and yelled that. When he had everyone’s attention, he was silent. A little too late, he realized he didn’t have anything to say. He hadn’t thought that far ahead. And BOY did he look stupid and get into a whole heap of trouble?!!! Yes, on both counts.
I call it “Being Eva Peron,” and see it playing out over and over again with famous people who have microphones in their faces.
Since 2nd grade, I’ve always stayed really quiet until I knew I had something to say. And then the internet came along and I haven’t shut up since.
And here’s something I made that’s sweet, just so prove that I don’t hate everyone. Just most everybody.
