Greetings

After 18 months of retirement from the Canadian public service, I went to work for a manufacturing company. When I come home from work, Simon greets me at the door with his tail held high. After I grab a drink from the fridge I go to my easy chair where Simon immediately jumps into my lap and purrs and purrs while he expects me to stroke him. After he has had sufficient petting, he goes up on the back of my chair and lays down at which point I retrieve my laptop and return to my chair. While I'm surfing or typing or listening, he goes to sleep and snores. He's the only cat I've ever seen that snores; in fact, as I type this, Simon is keeping the back of my neck warm on the back of my easy chair.

I wonder what makes him snore. His snoring is very loud. When we go to bed at night, he sleeps on the bed with us and snores. It doesn't bother my sleep, but it is a concern because he's an old cat (about 16 years old), and we wonder what causes it. I wonder if it`s rare for cats to snore. He`s lived a long time (for a cat) and I love him and want him to be comfortable. Cats love to be cozy.

I`m a Cat Person

Recently, I watched some youtube videos about cat friends vs. dog friends. They were funny while exaggerating the traits of cats and dogs, but if you never had a dog or a cat and had seen some of these videos, you probably would think twice about having one. My wife grew up with cats all of her life, and shortly after we were married she indicated that she was homesick. So one day I dropped by a pet store, and picked out two cats to bring to our nest. The female was a calico long hair that she called muffin, and the orange short haired male she named Clarence after the cross eyed lion that we watched on TV as kids. They became a joy to our home for many years; in fact, Muffin lived to be 18 or so. During our nearly 32 years of marriage since, we had 16 cats and never regretted any of them. Here is a list of their names:

Muffin

Clarence

Miss Moppit

Marshmallow

Chocolate

Taffy

Mario

Ira

Sunny

Star

Shadow

Garfunkel

Simon

Nigel

Teddy

Nya

If your thinking of getting a cat, don`t be discouraged by funny cat videos such as Simon the Cat or FB Funny Cat Videos or antics you see on Youtube. Although they`re hilarious, its usually not what you`re getting yourself into, its the blessing of having a feline friend.

Teddy

         The cat you see in the picture at the top of this blog is Teddy. Don't be fooled by the name. He's only cuddly to one person - my wife; and only when we're in bed. He's a beautiful looking cat with a coat of fur much like polished wood. He has a white undercoat that is truly amazing. He's a very muscular cat with a good running speed and jumping abilities. You would think that he would be the dominant cat among our 4 felines, but Ted bows out to them all - even our 18 year old arthritic long haired bi-colour cat, Simon. I think cats can feel inferior to other cats much like people do with other people. He was a stray when he adopted us 4 years ago. We brought him in before the Maritimes winter hit and he has never strayed since. I will never know what kind of life he had before we rescued him, or even if that has anything to do with his inferiority, but Teddy seems to be contented with his home otherwise, and we love him so much.

Undercats

When I was formulating the idea for this blog, my first choice for a title was Undercats. When I Googled undercats I found that the Urban Dictionary defined an undercat as: 'someone who does not have the motivation to do well in life.' I also found a jazz band who called themselves the Undercats who had a blog with that title so I had to come up with something different. Since I wrote a book which I self published on Kindle with the title 'Theory of Sevens', the natural extension of that is to call my blog 'Cat Theory'. I wanted this blog to be about cats because I had written another book entitled, 'Two Feral Waifs', which is about cats. I have had 16 different cats since I married and I now have four. I've read quite a bit about cats also, so I feel comfortable writing about the subject. I also go to a chat room called I Love Cats where I leave encouraging notes to other people who love cats. I hope you visit that chat room like I do. Best wishes for a prosperous New Year in 2013, and God bless.

Cartoon Cats

There is a neat cartoon I like to read every day. 'Savage Chickens'. Just Google it. It's mostly about chickens but Doug Savage has also put some pretty funny sketches of cats on his website. He draws his cartoons on sticky notes and then puts them on the Savage Chickens site. If you click on his cats tag it will take you to all of his cat cartoons. In fact today he had a cartoon of cats on a Christmas tree. It seems he presently has two cats: Watson and Crumble. I don't know Doug Savage and I've never contacted him so to one of my favorite creators of laughs here's a little free advertizing.

Review of HERO CATS

I had a  thought that once in a while I would write a review of a book about cats. Just so happens that I've been reading a book about cats: 'Hero Cats (True Stories of Daring Feline Deeds)'. by Eric Swanson. It contains within its pages heroic deeds performed by cats very much like our very own feline friends. You wouldn't guess that kitties could be heroes, but it's true according Eric Swanson. This book looks at cats in a different light. Sure most of the time, they are the lazy, self centered, heat seeking felines we've come to love and adore, but just read this book and you'll look at your purring machine in a different light.

There is Pod who protects Aegis from an intruder dog; Scarlett who saves her kittens one by one from a burning building risking her life and almost losing it. There is Tramp who saves her canine friend, Lady from a fox trap; and Mr. Meow who saves a new born baby girl from strangulation. The list goes on. This book though not mushy is tender and funny, a good read for the whole family.

Golden Eyed Feline Dreaming

The following is a song I started and someone on the chat room 'I Love Cats' finished.
Used by permission.

If all my cats were gone and the sky was grey,
I would be so lonely on a winter's day
My wife works all day. We're not in LA,
I went for a walk and began to pray.

Golden eyed feline dreaming on such a lonely day.

• Came across a cat ... (that) I had passed along the way
  He started to walk and talk with me
  On a sunny day ...
  People stared along the street
  As we walked on by
  That cat knew where he was going
  No need to ask him why
  I wondered where he was headed
  Where he would take me
  He showed me some directions
  To help to set me free
  The cats know all the answers
  The cats know what to do
  They know where you need to go
  And what you need too
  Listen to the cats ...
  They will guide you along
  They understand the humans
  And help to keep us strong ...

Golden eyed feline dreaming on such a lonely day