To all you felines out there, I write to you as a family, the family of cats. Sometimes I feel like I am a distant relative and what I know for sure, is that I am a close admirer. To be honest though, my most direct connection to you is through the members of my own family and their cats.
As you might know, humans consider the domesticated cat the most famous animal on the planet, at least since we invented the internet. And I can speak from personal experience that they are very famous since all members of my direct family share their house with a cat. In my family, no other animal gets to sleep on their beds, hang out on their sofas, hunt the birds in their gardens and sometimes even eat from their plates.
Speaking about fame – the most famous cat in my family is ‘Broger’. Sometimes he is the full center of attention: in our minds and conversations, in the pictures we take, even in the spaces that we live. And, he is always there. Moving between houses, from neighbor to neighbor he is the center of the hamlet. And even though I sometimes look at him and think ‘you are so far away from what your wilder cousins living in the forest must be like’, I can still sometimes catch a glimpse of that ancestral wilderness. So, thank you Broger, you weird cat, for being this ordinary portal into other worlds.
Anyway, whether I look at your domesticated members or your wilder relatives, you seem to be masters of switching between states of being. Between being cute and being a killer. Between being the center of attention and prowling through the unseen. All in one mind and body, throughout what some say, many lives, yet within the blink of an eye. I try to imagine all the strength it takes you to find this balance. And yet from looking at you it seems so effortless. So elegant, so lean, so sovereign. You see, I have fallen for you…
Dear felines, I guess this turns out to be a love letter, to you as well as to my family. In hopes of one day extending mine with one of yours.
Love,
Anna
As you might know, humans consider the domesticated cat the most famous animal on the planet, at least since we invented the internet. And I can speak from personal experience that they are very famous since all members of my direct family share their house with a cat. In my family, no other animal gets to sleep on their beds, hang out on their sofas, hunt the birds in their gardens and sometimes even eat from their plates.
Speaking about fame – the most famous cat in my family is ‘Broger’. Sometimes he is the full center of attention: in our minds and conversations, in the pictures we take, even in the spaces that we live. And, he is always there. Moving between houses, from neighbor to neighbor he is the center of the hamlet. And even though I sometimes look at him and think ‘you are so far away from what your wilder cousins living in the forest must be like’, I can still sometimes catch a glimpse of that ancestral wilderness. So, thank you Broger, you weird cat, for being this ordinary portal into other worlds.
Anyway, whether I look at your domesticated members or your wilder relatives, you seem to be masters of switching between states of being. Between being cute and being a killer. Between being the center of attention and prowling through the unseen. All in one mind and body, throughout what some say, many lives, yet within the blink of an eye. I try to imagine all the strength it takes you to find this balance. And yet from looking at you it seems so effortless. So elegant, so lean, so sovereign. You see, I have fallen for you…
Dear felines, I guess this turns out to be a love letter, to you as well as to my family. In hopes of one day extending mine with one of yours.
Love,
Anna
