The Royal Treatment

I realized tonight that there’s one member of our family that I’ve not written about - our cat Maggie. If Maggie could read (and use the internet), my safety would be in great danger by now. 

“How is it David,” I can hear her say in my imagination, “That you can write at great length about everyone else in the village, and not say one word about the MONARCH in your midst. I COMMAND a post - make me sound majestic!” 

It’s not much of an exaggeration. Our little black and white short hair cat is the one imperial presence in our midst. There are times when she passes gracefully by that I could swear I hear the flutter of purple robes and smell the scent of rose petals beneath her little paws. 

She is also the most self assured little spirit that I've ever met. 

“Neh,” is what I typically hear out of a sleepy dream when the cat is looking for attention. 

“Neh,” and the swish of a little tail across my brow. She’ll often sit by my head as I sleep and nonchalantly whack me in the face with her tail until I wake. 

“Oh, you’re awake,” her little green eyes seem to say to my groggy bewilderment, “How convenient, please rub my head.”

I grew up in a family that kept dogs, so when I met my wife and came to know her cat, it was something of a paradigm shift for me. 

“Such a promising servant,” I suspect she said to herself when I fed her, or clipped her nails, or took her to the vet, or brushed her fur in the spring when she started to lose her winter coat, “I do hope he stays.”

After 10 years, I expect that she considers me fully trained. 

I’ll try to include Maggie in some of my posts. The kids are just gaga in love with her. They follow her all over the house like little preschool groupies. When she’s not awaiting services from my wife and me she’s a good companion. Our house is never lonely. 

Living with her is also the closest thing I’ve known to living with a movie star or a member of the royal house or the last daughter of an imperial dynasty. She’s the exalted one, exiled in the land of capitalism and democracy; exiled, but still eminent and proud.