Niño & Niña - 29 May 2022

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.

Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to abstract concepts such as nations, emotions, and natural forces, such as seasons and weather.

Both have ancient roots as storytelling and artistic devices, and most cultures have traditional fables with anthropomorphized animals as characters. People have also routinely attributed human emotions and behavioral traits to wild as well as domesticated animals. Wikipedia

How could I have possibly known that when Rosemary and I returned from a trip to Buenos Aires in September 2019, that to replace our Casi-Casi cat that had died before we left, that we would find a pair of cats that would make us happy? And how would I have known then, that someday (now with Rosemary gone on December 9 2020) this pair, Niño and Niña, make my daily life an almost cheerful one?

My neighbours are constantly asking me how I am. Because I am a tad paranoid I think that they may ask me this because they hear me talking a lot, and since they know I live alone, they must think I am loony. My conversations with Niño and Niña are elaborate, affectionate and in Spanish.

I have written here and more on how one of the most important pleasures and duties of my every day is to walk Niño around the block. I cannot stress enough how wonderful it is to have a pair of cats that are siblings, that they look much alike (Niña is smaller than Niño) and how the get along well except when Niño runs playfully after her like most cats are known to do. It is almost as if I were living with twins.

If I had one cat I would share my little house with the cat. By having two cats, it seems like the sharing is communal. 

Any Roman Catholic who is up on Catholic Doctrine knows that Catholics do not worship the Virgin Mary. She is simply and important person (Jesus's mother) who has pull. When these Catholics pray to her they want her to intercede for them. I see in my cats a form of a direct link to my Rosemary. That communal feeling of living with Niño and Niña is one of seeing them as a link to Rosemary.

A couple of days ago, Niña was inside our closet. A little bit later she was trying to pull something out of it. I only saw a bit of it and did not pursue the matter. But some moments later I could see it was one of Rosemary's garden hats. And of course I wondered.

One of  my feline pleasures is that when one lives alone there are few patterns, obligations to the daily routine that matter and my cats provide me with them. These two cats have a routine. They tell me when they want to be let out, when they want attention when I am sitting at my oficina chair, when they want to be fed and Niño has now learned the expression “walk-walk” and both know what to expect when at around 8 in the evening I loudly say, “treats”.

The photograph illustrating this blog is not a very good one. Taking it was limited to the length of my arm. But you can see how both cats get on top of me and for me to read a book it can be a bit difficult (I manage).