You Make Me Feel Like Dancing!

We are a pet loving household. We have three cats - two of whom have been with us since we returned from our honeymoon, over a decade ago, and one who came to live with us almost a year ago. (As an interesting aside, all three cats came into our lives on Canada Day - July 1. The old lady cats were born on my kid sister's bed on July 1, 1997, and Isis came to live with us, a feisty, scrawny little thing of about a month old, on July 1, 2008.) We love our cats, very much. (We love our dog, too, but we were cat people first.) They have provided boundless love, and snuggles, and frustration, and haughtiness (and all other things that cats do oh-so-well). They have kept one or the other of us company while the other has been traveling, or attending university three hours away.

We have been up to four cats at one point in time, before our children came along. The two not-so-old ladies were joined first by one young stray that followed my husband home in the dead on winter one year, just before Christmas. (He since went on a long walk, never to return. We looked for a long long time, but outside life is not always so kind to a housecat.) Those three were joined by another young kitten that again followed my husband one day. (My husband then quit walking around town, lest we end up as those crazy cat people living with 20 cats, and counting.) This last young kitten lived with us for several years, until he met a minivan. I still miss that cat. He was a handsome, friendly, orange ex-tom cat, that purred loudly and hugged while he snuggled.

So, now, we are back up to three feline companions. Our two old ladies, Patsy and Minuit, from the litter born on my sister's bed almost 12 years ago, and Isis, a pretty young cat that has been the favourite companion of my five year old middle son, in particular. Isis is much loved by all children who spend time at our house. She is willing to play with the kids, and doesn't escape too quickly to her hiding spots. (Unlike the old ladies, who only ever come out after the children are all sleeping, and then mostly to tell us that they are out of food, or need new litter. Sometimes they come just to visit with us, but that is the exception rather than the rule these days. I don't think they have ever quite forgiven us for bringing first, strange kittens, and then, horrors!, children!! into the house, and not getting rid of any of them! But I digress...)

Isis is very friendly, and is willing to play with the children, and regularly seeks them out. Of late, though, she has been friendlier than she has been since the first couple of months that she has lived with us. This past Saturday morning, she was snuggling with the middle child, and purring, and making him feel rather special with all this cuddling. She then proceeded to slither off his lap, and onto the floor, and proceeded under a chair, all the while with her hindquarters undulating up and down with each step she took. "Look, Isis is dancing! Isis is doing a cat dance!!" he laughed, and proceeded to get down on all fours on the floor, and copied her strange undulating movements across the floor. In the meantime, the other two children have followed them, copying this "dance" across the floor, and into the other room. My husband and I are too busy trying hard not to wet ourselves laughing to bother to explain to them what the cat is really up to. Sunday, and the child was laughing and following the cat across the floor again. "She's showing me the REST of her cat dance, Mom!! LOOK!!!"

I still haven't explained to my three children why the cat was dancing. I've been too busy laughing. And telling everyone I know about the "dance". But I do know that I will not be forgetting the next appointment with the vet, to get the cat spayed...