Friday, March 29, 2024
cat conversationscat storiesgiuseppejelly beanmewsettemimimr. sunshinemy household of felines

The Day We Met Our So-called Daddy

black cat on sidewalk
Who was this man cat?

We had always had our mama Mimi with us from the time we could remember, and of course our human mama Bernadette, and we didn’t know there was ever anyone else. What kindle of happy kittens could ask for more?

But one day we noticed our mama Mimi was acting a little strangely, distracted and distant, not as attentive with the  touch-up baths we loved so much, little licks around the face and ears as we figured all feline moms did. But she kept going to the front door and the windows and pacing around, which was not unusual considering there are often other kitties out there, not to mention her favorite chipmunks and squirrels and birds and more. We just felt she was expecting something to happen that hadn’t happened yet in our lives.

We were a little past one year old, quite mature but were about to learn a lesson we’d never forget because a black cat came down the street and up the sidewalk like none other we’d ever seen. It wasn’t his size or shape or anything, we just felt…somehow, we knew him.

black cat on sidewalk
He walked very purposely down the walk.

It was obvious our mama Mimi knew him, as did our mama Bernadette; just when we thought we knew and had experienced everything, like we knew every other cat in the neighborhood and every bird and squirrel by their secret names, these two showed us we were wrong.

Both of them grew very silent and stood still watching the cat turn off the sidewalk and come down our walk toward the door, as if he lived here! Mama Bernadette, of course, grabbed one of her eye boxes—while we stand still and study and turn our ears this way and that and bob our noses and open our mouths to smell better in order to experience and assess a situation, Mama Bernadette picks up one of her little eye boxes and we hear snap snap snap while we do our cat thing.

But we were totally confused by the next thought mama Mimi sent to us: this cat was our “father”. That was a totally new concept. What was a father? The images and ideas we were seeing from her were totally confusing…her and this cat, in the neighbor’s driveway across the street, were they fighting? What was this all about? Then we saw our mom with a big belly, then we saw…some squirming little black things?

black cat on sidewalk
Our mom tells him in no uncertain terms…something we won’t repeat.

He kept calling her “Maia”, and he and our mama Mimi had a wordless conversation, something about “not doing that anymore”. In another part of our consciousness it was all coming together. There is that part of us that knows things we can’t see or smell or hear or taste or touch, it just wasn’t as important as what we “knew” at the time but we’ve grown into it as the years have passed. In that moment all four of us together were coming to one understanding as we looked at each other and at our little mama and at the cat out on the sidewalk, and even at the other cats who weren’t even related to us, Cookie, Namir, Kelly and Peaches—apparently they knew something too! How could we have not known this? We were learning one big lesson from our mama Mimi and our older brother and sisters, and even our human mama, this concept of “father”, and we weren’t sure we liked it, especially the way he was treating our mama Mimi in her images, and the way he was looking at her and communicating with her now!

But even though our mama is tiny and was way less than half the size of this black cat, she told him where to go in no uncertain feline terms we won’t repeat here. And he did, just turned around and went back out the way he came in.

closeup of black cat
Do you think we look like him?!

Then the conversation started and included all the cats in the house because we had a new concept to play with! Even we recognized his face—did his eyes look like Giuseppe’s? Those big round paws like Mewsette’s? And that white spot—Bean had one too! And that straight-across back—Mr. Sunshine!

In the end we decided we all looked a little bit like him. But we still looked like our mama Mimi.

And then she told us something that shocked us all. There was another black cat aside from this one! Why didn’t he come to visit? How would we ever know if we looked like him instead? Mama Mimi said she hoped she’d never see him again because she had no further use for him.

Underneath the excitement of meeting this black cat, the whole situation was very confusing. Mama Mimi told us there was a time that this what what she did and she was very careful about who she did it with, she liked everything to be organized and neat and didn’t want any kittens that didn’t match. But because we had all been “fixed” (we didn’t know we were broken) we would never fully understand and that was just fine.

We see plenty of cats out there, but we never saw him again. We hear human cat daddies are pretty special—we have cat uncles and they are the greatest!—and we’ve heard about some cat daddies in our own species who are just as cool as our mama Mimi, but this guy, well, we’re glad they didn’t stay together.

You may also recognize this guy from “The Boys Don’t Get Off the Hook on Spay Day”.

Read about Mimi and her epiphany about the happiness of being spayed in her annual Mother’s Day address,  Mimi, on “Mother’s Day”, but once you’ve produced the Fantastic Four, how could you possibly top that?!

. . . . . . .

I first published this on The Creative Cat for Father’s Day 2012.


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From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

22 thoughts on “The Day We Met Our So-called Daddy

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  • Great post …so purrleased we read backwards to catch up on Mimi and the four and Miss B. paw pats, Savvy

    Reply
    • Savvy, they look so simple, but it’s a long and complicated story. I’m so lucky they are with me.

      Reply
  • A purrfect post for fathers day 😉
    That kitty is handsome, but then some of us are under the spell of black cats 😉
    Purrs Tillie and Georgia,
    Treasure,Tiger,JJ and Julie

    Reply
    • Tillie and Georgia, I got the idea he was a very quiet and serious cat since he never had any injuries and seemed very gentle, not like the others. I hope he was fixed at some point, and I’m sure he made a wonderful friend to a human. He certainly made lovely babies.

      Reply
  • I should actually add to the story at some point that one of the other black mancats was very obviously Bean’s daddy. Bean’s head and face are noticeably different from the others though the rest of him is Mimi all over, but the other cat had those ears and that profile, the slanted eyes and the distinctive white spots, and was a little smaller than this mancat. And he was goofy. There will be a story sometime this summer regarding that mancat and Stanley.

    Reply
  • I was quite absorbed in this story! A fascinating ongoing saga! And yes, he is one goodlooking mancat!

    Reply
    • Carolyn, Mimi has extremely good taste. Look at her children!

      Reply
  • He’s one good looking cat. A little rough around the edges and all. When TW was a young girl, she said this one male cat must’ve gotten around cos every kitten in the hood looked like him. Nowadays she would’ve catnapped him and had him fixed.

    Reply
    • CK, Mimi was very particular about her assignations—no playboys, no cauliflower ears or nasty scars, just good genetics, there were actually three strong and sturdy black male cats. Black fur seemed to be requisite as well since nearly all her kittens were solid black, and that can only happen if both parents carry that gene. I had my eye on them for neutering, but their owner, who had FOUR UNNEUTERED CATS IN HIS APARTMENT, said he’d sue me if I had them neutered. So I got Mimi instead, not a bad deal at ll.

      Reply
  • He is a rather handsome kitty. He has some gorgeous offspring. How sad he was not neutered, though.

    Reply
    • He was extremely handsome, Rumpydog, but as I’d mentioned to CK, above, his owner was onto my guerilla spay neuter tactics around the hood.

      Reply
  • great story. i also like how Mr. Mancat looks so bold as brass, walking up that path, but his tail is down low, meaning, “I doubt I’m going to get away with this…”

    Reply
    • Sparky, that’s the hallmark of an unnetuered male, bold as brass, like walking down the middle of the street daring cars to hit him. Thy guy’s tail was always down, and I’m not sure why, but he was the most serious of the three.

      Reply
  • Bernadette – the relationships that cats share are so incredible and I enjoyed your take on the concept of “Father” today. Thank you also for sharing my story about Zee – it was so fascinating to witness his transition of fatherhood with his own kittens. From complete disgust and denial to where he is today – a very sensitive and loving father to his kittens who are now cats themselves!

    Reply
    • Deb, unfortunately for most girl cats, Mimi’s story is the usual one. We’re so glad it was different for Zoey and Zee! And it’s really remarkable that Zee cleaned up his act for Zoey and the kids, it doesn’t always work out that way!

      Reply
  • So who wrote this? Giuseppe? Mewsette? Mr. Sunshine? Jelly Bean? And why does s/he use the third person? Is there some mysterious need for anonymity?
    Inquiring minds want to know.

    Reply
    • Meg, there are times when all four work together to create or to communicate. It’s a very magical thing, and a wonderful energy when they all focus as one. I don’t call them The Fantastic Four, The Creative Quartet and The Four Housecats of the Apocalypse for nothing.

      Reply
      • Now that I’m aware of their Four Housecats of the Apocalypse title, I’d like to know what the signs are, please. . . .

        Reply
        • Four black cats with glowing eyes galloping through the house…

          Reply
          • Then surely our days are numbered! Live it up! (But then I always do.)

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