Steven's Feline Friday

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"The word 'happiness' would lose it's meaning if it were not balanced by sadness."

-Carl Jung

I had a rare chance yesterday, to photograph Elvis when he was crying tears. It doesn't happen very often, the last time I remember it happening, was about 3 years ago, when he had found one of his opossum friends in the backyard, that he thought was ill. As it turned out, it was doing what opossums do...it was playing opossum. At that time we didn't know much about those wonderful little creatures, so it had Alan and I a bit worried as well. With a little research, I came to find out what marvelous creatures they really are. Now, Elvis has many opossum friends in the back yard, and they don't fear him, because of how sweet and friendly a cat he is.

Elvis has a best friend, Ernst, who comes by each afternoon to romp and chase Elvis, and sometimes another neighborhood kitty, Sabastiani, will hop the fence and that makes for a great time. I have been amazed at how these three play together with such spunk, and fun, while always remembering their manners. :) It's pretty cool. Lately however, there has been a new cat that has been showing up in the yard, a large Russian Blue. He is trying to establish his identity in the neighborhood, so he has been beating up on the cats in the neighborhood. Sigh. Elvis, had a run in with the new neighbor...and I think he got his feelings hurt.

Elvis will be 9 years old on April 27th, and so he is not as quick as the other cats, but then it was never really an issue. He can run and romp, and when he gets tired, Ernst will usually just curl up with him till Elvis gets his second wind. Yesterday, when the new cat began to beat up Ernst, in our yard, Elvis flexed his muscle, and tried to run the mean cat out of the yard. Well, Elvis got knocked down, no injuries, we saw it happen, but Elvis did get his pride hurt a bit. Ernst ended up running the new cat from the yard, but Elvis got mad...really mad, and so he actually hissed at us. He needed to be left alone, so that's what we did.

About 5 minutes or so later, Elvis came to the back door, and asked to come in. He was so sad. He refused to purr. He jumped up on the end of the bed and curled up with his monkey, Cap-n-Federick. I tried to reassure him, but he would have none of it. He was in full pout mode. I didn't give up on my best little fella. I got a jar of his favorite baby food, Beef in Beef Gravy, and a small cup of milk, and he and I had some parent/child bonding time. We cooed and mewed for a couple hours, and finally he began to purr, but in the mean time, he just needed to cry those tears, and then let himself feel better. I will never be a mommy to a real child, but I have this little guy who depends on me for everything. That is a good feeling. He has always been there to pat my tears when I cry, and I am there for him. :)

Be sure to drop by Steven's blog to see Pickle show off a little cat-attitude. :) It's fun to play along with Feline Friday. If you have a kitty you want to show off, just drop by Steven's blog to get all the details. Fridays are for Felines! Thanks Steven for this fun meme. :)

-OndineMonet
"Tears"
Berkeley, California
April 6th, 2006
Evening