The View From Here is most definitely feline

… there will be

No Dog In This House…

I acquired a canine companion on a walk recently.  Bruce is a young black lab who hails from our neighbouring farm.  I tried to make him return to the farmhouse but he was having none of it.  He and his fellow canines do often amble between farm and farmhouse.  I thought perhaps if I walked on and ignored him, he would get bored and head back.  Nope.

I decided I may as well enjoy his company and attempted a few photographs.  He was very interested and came trotting straight up to me, black nose breathing on the lens.  Would he pose?  Nope.  Bruce had other ideas.

The world was much too exciting to expect him to stay still – apart from when he climbed the bank to survey what lay beyond.  I managed a rather nice silhouette.

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I should mention that I do know Bruce, and his farming owners: I’m not in the habit of dognapping.  And we didn’t go far.  Obviously I didn’t want his owners to be worried over his whereabouts, and I wasn’t going to venture too close to where we might encounter traffic, but oh, I did have fun. And so did Bruce.

It was a very different experience walking with a bouncy, joyous, inquisitive animal.  I chatted; he occasionally gave an impression of listening.  As he bounded around; I couldn’t help smiling broadly.  A walk I make regularly became an event.  I thoroughly enjoyed his company and returned home not only exercised, but joyful and enthusiastic.  His vibe was infectious.

Bruce safely restored to his farm, I pondered as I ambled off to my own home.  We always said we would get a dog once we’d settled in here; we talked about it often. How good it would be to stride out with a dog for company.

That very same evening an email popped into my mailbox from The Labrador Rescue Trust.  I wasn’t looking for it, I really wasn’t.  They have a branch at Liskeard, our nearest town…

I decided to raise the idea with Bernie.

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And in a twinkling – I hadn’t yet said a word – Harri appears.

She settles herself on my lap, warm and comforting.  Sonorous purrs as I bury my fingers in her fur.  Before she settled – in between jumping up from where she’d been stretched out on the floor, and circling around until she’d got my lap exactly as she wanted it – she had sat straight and upright, eyeballing.  Her beautiful whiskery face with its wide yellow eyes was as close to mine as Bruce’s had been to the phone lens.

“I am here,” she explained,

in that silent, commanding way

she has about her when she’s set on something.

“I am here, and while I am here there will be

No Dog In This House.”

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The view from here remains implacably feline.

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Perhaps, when Harri’s snoozing among the pots – warm and relaxed in the sunshine- Bruce will join me again for the occasional ramble…

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33 thoughts on “The View From Here is most definitely feline”

  3. Harri’s right. You have the perfect solution. A friendly dog who joins you for walks but then doesn’t come home with you and make the whole house smell insidiously of Dog. Or worse, Wet Dog.

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  4. Ah, I’d love to have a dog, but the cats would hate it, so I know what you mean. But there’s something so special about walking a dog – when I go on one of my infrequent get-fit kicks and go for walks in the park I’m always so jealous of the people with dogs. My walk feels like a chore while theirs looks like fun! Borrowing Bruce sounds like a great solution…

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      1. Thank you! She is rather stunning, especially for a standard domestic moggie. (She’s also got rather fat this winter and has now joined me on a diet…) (Yes, this is me who snaffled the chocolate the other evening… )

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  5. My dog, Jeremy, is a wonderful walking companion. He gets me out of the house even on those days when I know I wouldn’t go for a walk if it weren’t for him. And my two kitties, Alfie and Josie, are content to stay home waiting for us. When Jeremy and I get home from our walks, Alfie always has to come out to say hello to Jeremy and rub up against him. They’re all very close friends and love to snuggle. I don’t know, Sandra, but it sure seems that some type of message was trying to get through to you with both Bruce joining you on your walk and then getting an email from the Labrador Rescue. Hmmmmm.

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  7. I love this. It confirms beautifully my view that although we humans think we are in control of our pets it is, of course, completely the other way round. 🙂

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  8. What a gorgeous cat! I’m definitely a cat person–and mine would be disgusted if I tried to bring a dog home. You just need to keep borrowing Bruce and I’ll borrow the chocolate lab from down the road!

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    1. Thank you Kerry, she is very beautiful – and extremely fluffy! There’s more fur than cat! We shall each content ourselves with walking our borrowed labs. 🙂

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  9. Our dog is relatively new to the household (2 years now). And the cats were not happy about it. But I had to weigh my options – cats who don’t want a dog or kids who did. It took a while, but the dog mostly leaves the cats alone now and they are not really scared of him anymore. I do still find myself thinking from time to time how peaceful it would be to go back to only having cats. But, then I remember that since getting a dog, I can go for walks at night in the dark by myself, and that makes it almost worth it. 🙂

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    1. Naomi, it really is swings and roundabouts isn’t it. We too, got a dog when the children were younger but we had been a cat-free home at that time. Harri is 12 now; I don’t want to stress her out and make her elder years miserable. But I can daydream about having another dog… maybe one day!

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  10. What a beautiful post! It does appear to be that you potentially have it all, the bounding companionship of a dog without the responsibility and the quiet companionship of a cat who doesn’t demand much expect mastery over her entire domain.

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    1. If I felt I could ask for Bruce’s company whenever I wanted it, I would indeed have the best of all worlds. But he is a farm dog, always on the go and generally with his master. I’m not sure his ‘master’ would let him go too often! One man and his dog and all that!

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  11. Jonathan > It is not for us mere humans to decide what animals are to live in our houses: that’s something that just happens! Even Harri might not, in the event, find it so bad as she thinks she would. Our Molly was about 12 or 13 when her sister died, and she deeply resented us bringing into the home not just a replacement cat, but a cat and a dog, then another cat, and eventually we had 7 cats and a dog (the last two cats moved in of their own accord!). Alas we lost two young cats to road accidents, so there were five of them (plus Tilly the dog) when Molly finally passed away last year aged 21. By then she’d actually learned to enjoy her status of senior cat, and made sure the others paid the respect they owed to her! Harri has the same expression about her as we so often with Pickle, who is very intelligent and thinks herself one of us, more than one of the cats.

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    1. This gives me more cause for hope, Jonathan – firstly because Mollie lived to reach 21 which makes Harri (aged 12) a mere spring chicken. We talk about introducing a kitten as well – to overlap with Harri, who will one day leave a huge hole in the home. We also talk about having a few chickens and for a brief while we wondered about sheep. Or alpacas… Sometimes it may be a good thing that we talk a lot but generally never manage to turn the talk into action!

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  13. Those are wonderful shots, Bruce silhouetted on the bank and Harri peaking in through the window, revealing their personalities. Perhaps your joyous narration feeds my imagination. Tell you what, they both have an eye on you!

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  15. And why would you crave a dog when you have a gorgeous, fluffy Harri? Our Zoe would accompany us on walks (just a little way, to the end of the close), to make sure that we weren’t picking up any nasty canine companions. Still, I am sure you can enjoy your rambles with Bruce at a safe distance.

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    1. Ha ha, yes! My first cat used to accompany us on walks. She would come so far and then stop. If we took a circular route, I would have to continue on a second loop to the point where she had stopped and there she’d be – waiting. Harri is not inclined to walk with us. But she’s an expert at purring, snuggling and generally being fluffy!

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    1. I’ve just rechecked how I wrote this post, Laura, and yes, I can see how some confusion might arise. Forgive me for clarifying but I don’t want you to be disappointed with some later post: Bernie (short for Bernard) is my partner. (Kiwi, tall, bald, beard, glasses, retired). But there will be those who would indeed consider him to be gorgeous. Harri (short for Harriet) is my cat. (Strawberry blond, exceedingly fluffy, insufferably spoiled and delightful in every way.) Absolutely everyone considers her gorgeous! I leave you to take your pick between them 😉

      (Just popped over to your blog – a Cornish blog to follow – wonderful! 🙂 )

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      1. Oh wow, sorry! hehe. Trust me to get confused! Thank you for following and I look forward to reading more of your posts 🙂

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