What is Your Cat Saying to You?

Not many people think so, but cats are smart. They know what they want. They will let you know by the tone in their "meow" what they want. Recently I lost my cat who lived to be 19-years-old. She was more than a cat to my husband and me. She was our "baby". My daughter was 15 when she found her as a kitten out in the rain abandoned. She brought her home and we fell in love with her. We took her to the vet for a check up and had her "fixed". My husband was not a cat lover by any means as he grew up with dogs as pets. But he took to Murphy (my daughter named her) like it was his child. She loved him back. She would greet him at the door and love on him. She would "hang out" with him. As we watched her grow and become part of our family we began to see how smart she was.

Murphy knew about 150 words and I not making this up. My husband and I went over the words she knew and it was at least that. She hated us to go away on a trip. She would be mad at us when we returned. I have pictures to show from it. We would finish off our roll (before digital cameras) of pictures of her when we got back. She always had a dirty look on her face. But it wasn't on long once she knew we were home and staying.

A few times that my husband and I had a heated argument, our voices raised, she obviously was bothered by it. She would get between us and let out this LOUD MEOW. We would stop. It actually made us laugh and our argument was over. She made us realize what we were doing. She wanted us to stop!

She was a sweet cat. Unlike and incomparable to any other I have known. I had eye surgery when she was about 2. I came home with my eye bandaged up and laid in bed. Next thing I knew she was laying down beside me and she put her paw on my cheek. As if to say I was going to be alright. Sometimes she didn't have to meow to let us know she cared. See, Murphy gave love back as well.

When the grandkids came along we never had to worry about her being around them. If they were able to get close to her she just put up with it. It didn't take long for her to keep her distance so she wouldn't get pulled on and picked up by the neck as the kids would do. Murphy never laid a scratch on anyone.

Murphy hated her trips to the vet. If she saw the carrier come out she would run and hide. We learned not to put it out in sight of her when we had to take her to the vet. It wasn't the vet she didn't like, it was the car trip. She didn't like the ride. She would give us the most pathetic and loud meow during the way to the vet. So we would talk to her and put our finger through the carrier to pet her. She only did that on the way to the vet and on the way home she was silent. She could not wait to get home. She was smart enough to know she was on her way there.

Murphy could speak to us with her eyes. She would give us a certain "look" and we would figure out what they meant. Usually, she would come over and sit in front of you and stare when she wanted her "cookies" which was her cat treats. She would give us looks for wanting to go out in the backyard. She loved to go out and lay in the grass or by the pond and watch the fish. But she never left the yard. Of course we would bring her in when it got dark. Funny as it sounds,she figured out how to open the sliding screen door when she was less than a year old. She would open it just enough for her to get out. I only wished she could of learn to shut it as well.

There are so many stories of Murphy that I hold in my heart. I cry when I think of her. But she had a good home with us and we had a good home with her. We saw Murphy go from an abandoned kitten to an old lady cat. She was loved and spoiled. We were loved and spoiled by her. During her last few months with us, she became thinner and hardly would eat. We took her to the vet and we found out she had a lump in her stomach and it was cancerous. It broke our hearts. Neither of us could bare the pain of losing her. Nor could we bare the pain of her suffering. We knew what we had to do and Murphy knew it too. It was so hard to let her go. Suffering was not an option we would choose for her. We had her buried at the pet cemetery near us. We miss her and always will. We went through pictures of her, picked out our favorites and had them blown up and so could we frame them. That helped the grieving process for us.

Murphy could talk to us by her meows that she gave out as well as the looks she would give. She was an angel cat. I will never forget her. She will never be forgotten. She will always hold a place in my heart.