Under the Toronto Sun: Day 102: Can cats talk

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 102: Can cats talk

Many years ago, I considered adopting a Ragdoll and asked a friend if her Ragdolls talked. Her response was …”Do they talk? The question is, do they ever shut up!”

This pleased me immensely because while I’ve had cats all my life, all of them were quiet cats. They never said anything.

The exception was Chanel. Chanel was a mixed breed (Maine Coon with something else) and she was a rather vocal kitty. From the day we adopted her she prattled on in her little kitten voice and over the years she developed quite the vocabulary.

In our current cat family, there are a few talkers. Gabriel usually starts around 6:00 a.m. when it’s time for Dieter to get up. Monday to Friday his babbling is fine, endearing even, but come Saturday and Sunday when Dieter wants to sleep in, Gabriel doesn’t know it’s weekend and does his very best to get Dieter up and about. Not that he puts all that much effort into it, because when Dieter doesn’t get up Gabriel gives up and seems of the opinion … I did my best, if you going to be late you have no one but yourself to blame.

Charlotte … well, she doesn’t say much at all. If and when Charlotte says something she sounds like a sheep with a case of laryngitis.

As for Holly … yes, Holly talks. Holly is part Ragdoll, part something else and one can actually have a conversation with her. As long as you talk to her, she’ll answer.

As for our latest edition, Halley … ever since we adopted her in January, she was a very quiet kitten. Never said anything. That changed yesterday. On a wall in the living room hangs a bird ornament.

So far this ornament was ignored, but yesterday it got switched on and we got to hear this songbird’s voice loud and clear. Halley went bananas! In an effort to get to the bird she walked up and down, jumped on the chair, jumped on the cabinet, all the while producing cute little kitten noises. It was too funny.

But speaking of Halley … let me give you an update on our little girl.

For the longest time, she was perfectly happy with a selection of balls, soft rubber balls, hard plastic balls, ping-pong balls, you name it she rolled it around. Of course, sooner or later those balls would end up under a chair and then she would put on quite the show for Dieter or me to retrieve her toy.

That is until one day we didn’t feel like lifting up the sofa again and we gave her a spring to play with.

OMG, and did she have fun with that. She played with it for hours, literally. That first night, Gabriel, Charlotte, and Holly had long gone to bed, but Halley was still playing with her spring. Rolling it, batting it, picking it up between her teeth and carrying it around.

Now, since last night to be exact, she found something else to play with … toilet paper. Just take a look ….