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| Rosemary & Niño 22 March 2020 |
To find out about the title of this blog go to the end.
In jest I have told a few of my friends and relatives that I am considering becoming a trans woman. The reason is that at my age of 79, I live alone with two cats, brother and sister Niño and Niña. I talk to them. Because they compete to get on my lap when I sit on my hanging chair to watch TV and compete for being as close to me as possible when I turn on the lights at night they are as inseparable to me as chewing gum (in a good way). I believe that except for my obvious male sex I define a crazy cat lady. But how can I become one if I am not a woman?
I calculate that before Rosemary died on December 9, 2020 I had lived until then only 7 months alone when I was in a pensión in Buenos Aires when I was doing my military service. Now I have been alone for many more than 7 months. It affects me most negatively and I wonder how other people live alone.
I have three former ecdysiasts friends (one in Mexico, one in the US and one in Canada) who live alone with dogs or a dog. One of them is active in finding homes for stray dogs. I wonder if these three women live alone because they had bad relations with men in their past. The fact is that they seem to be happy with their dogs.
Then there are other friends of mine (all women including my eldest daughter Alexandra ) who live alone with cats. Alexandra has 3.
Since about 1977 when we (Rosemary and two daughters) arrived in Vancouver, we have always had a cat or two cats. Most of them were bilingual as we communicated with them in Spanish and in English.
For many years Rosemary was attached to our cats and when one died it was my job to bury it in the garden and then immediately get a new cat.
Rosemary and I always went to the SPCA as we enjoyed the process of mutual adaptation with a middle aged cat. Only once we had a black kitten we called Mosca. Mosca died of a heart attack while Rosemary was watching Hitchcock’s Vertigo. It was during a very short period in our life when we had a TV in our bedroom.
The reason I always placated Rosemary’s grief over a dead cat by getting another one is that I believe that cats transfer a Platonic essence that I call catness. The live cat retains the catness of the dead one.
When I take Hilary back to Burnaby after serving her dinner I drive home knowing that I will be received by the gatuno company (a nice Spanish adjective for cat) of my two cats. Am I a crazy cat lady that I find them human? My Argentine pope has publicly said that cats and dogs may go to heaven. Under the pain of mortal sin I will not oppose his view.
It seems to be general knowledge that cats have a short memory. I think this untrue or the very least it does not apply to my two orange and white cats.
A couple of years ago, in our (Niño is unleashed) daily walks around the block Niño stood his ground with all dogs. There are a couple of ones that lick his face. His favourite is Scout a very large close neighbour’s pet. Niño had not seen Scout for two months so his owner told me today. As soon as the two saw each other Niño approached the dog and the licking began. I do not believe that a two month absence is a short memory lapse.
Because it was Rosemary who taught Niño to walk and I follow Rosemary’s route I wonder if Niño remembers as much as I do the absent presence of Rosemary. I almost believe in ghosts. Does Niño sense something of the sort?
I often wondered why in my native Argentina when people see a cat they use the word micifus. Thanks to Google in this 21st century I found out the following from Wikipedia
Etimología
Epónimo , variante de Micifuf, personaje gatuno creado por Lope de Vega en "La Gatomaquia" y posteriormente usado por Félix María de Samaniego en "Los gatos escrupulosos".
And further:
La Gatomaquia, es un poema épico burlesco de Lope de Vega, que fue publicado un año antes de su fallecimiento, en 1634, bajo el seudónimo de Tomé de Burguillos. Se divide en siete silvas, y consta de unos 2.500 versos.
So it seems that famous Spanish writer Lope de Vega wrote this poem under the pseudonym Tomé de Burgillos in 1634. I have no idea if this means that Argentines are more literate as the term micifuz is not used anywhere else
