Cat Story
My oldest son has always loved cats and
we had lots of cats around the house as he grew up. At one
time we actually had 19 cats and kittens running in all
directions, but always showing up for dinner.
One of his first cats was given to him by a lady who lived
in Jonesboro. I recall our going to get the cat in the
family car, a Volkswagon Beetle. On the way home, the cat,
a Siamese...about half grown, became frightened and jumped
to the wall of the car with all four legs extended and
embedded her claws into the upholstery. She let out a
mournful cry that lasted most of the way home, and there
was no way to remove that cat from the wall of the
automobile. When I see these Garfield stuffed animals
affixed to the windows of cars, I always think of that
incident.
The cat was given the name, Sheila, and Sheila was allowed
to stay in the house, a privilege never afforded any other
cat. Several months later, Sheila started acting very
strange. She would put her body close to the floor and
snake along while making that mournful cry of hers. She
definitely was not herself. My son became very concerned
thinking that she was ill.
When I got to work that day, I asked a lady friend of mine
who had cats of her own, what could be wrong. She laughed
and told me that when a Siamese cat went into “heat," it
would act this way.
I lived very near my office and went home for lunch each
day. It was during summer time and my son was on vacation
from school. Being quite relieved, I could hardly wait to
tell him that Sheila was not sick. In those days, it was
not common for houses to have central air conditioning and
we had all of the windows open to keep a breeze flowing
through the rooms. I took my son aside and said, “David,
don’t worry about Sheila, Miss Opal said that nothing is
wrong. She is just in ‘heat’ and Siamese cats act that way
when they’re in ‘heat’.” I could tell that he too was
relieved as he ran off and I went to the back of the house
to prepare for lunch. To my surprise, as I returned to the
kitchen, my son was there holding Sheila horizontally by
her front and hind legs in front of an air conditioning
window unit that we seldom used.
“What in the world are you doing!” I exclaimed.
“Cooling Sheila,” he said.
When a father teaches the “birds and the bees” to his son,
it would be a good idea to include “cats”.