"I have lived with several Zen masters... all of them cats."
~Eckhart Tolle
The Power Of Now: A Guide To Spiritual Enlightenment
It's quiet. All I can hear in the house right now is the snore of a little black cat named Hendrix. It's not a loud snore, he only snores just enough to be adorable. Sometimes I stop and watch him sleep, he usually sleeps at the end of our bed, but there is a second bed in my home office, on my cedar chest, where he curls up when he wants to spend time with me, and still catch a nap!
He seems to have adventurous dreams, as his legs move quite a bit and he makes little sounds like he has just caught a nice, juicy mouse, or finally discovers where the extra dry cat food is kept! Hendrix is a happy cat, always has been, and why shouldn't he be? He's a cat. A creature clearly superior to humans, and while we both know that is true, he forgives my imperfectness and loves us unconditionally.
When we first brought Joey home, after only having Hendrix and Dylan for five years, I fretted a bit about how integrating a new kitten into our home would be. Dr. B. told us not to worry. They would hiss, and make horrible growly sounds and there might even be a tussle or two, but there has never been a case of cat murder among their own community, just for the sake of committing murder! And he was right.
Within a couple weeks, Hendrix and Joey were best friends. Dylan wasn't happy about the new cat, but even he eventually learned to love Joey when he found out that Joey wasn't going to cause me to love him less. And it didn't hurt that Joey and he bonded over the move and stayed by each others side! It all worked out. Hendrix was established as the alpha, Joey treated him with respect, and Dylan knows that having one more new friend is better than making a new enemy!
If only humanity were as smart and
as reasonable the average house cat!
I came across this quote from Mark Twain.
It sums it all up!
"Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open to dispute. Indeed, my experiments have proven to me that he is the Unreasoning Animal... In truth, man is incurably foolish. Simple things which other animals easily learn, he is incapable of learning. Among my experiments with this, in an hour I taught a cat and a dog to be friends. I put them in a cage. In another hour I taught them to be friends with a rabbit. In the course of two days I was able to add a fox, a goose, a squirrel and some doves. Finally a monkey. They lived together in peace; even affectionately.
Next, in another cage I confined an Irish Catholic from Tipperary, and as soon as he seemed tame I added a Scotch Presbyterian from Aberdeen. Next a Turk from Constantinople; a Greek Christian from Crete; an Armenian; a Methodist from the wilds of Arkansas; a Buddhist from China; A Brahman from Benares. Finally, a Salvation Army Colonel from Wapping. Then I stayed away for two whole days. When I came back to not results, the cage of Higher Animals was all right, but in the other there was but a chaos of gory odds and ends of turbans and fezzes and plaids and bones and flesh... not a specimen left alive. These Reasoning Animals had disagreed on a theological detail and carried the matter to a Higher Court."
~Mark Twain
Letters From The Earth: Uncensored Writings
Leaf Of The Day
December 7th, 2016
~Me
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