One evening, I stepped into my closet to toss socks into the hamper.
As I leaned down in the darkness, I felt a pat pat pat on my head.
Bats? Mice? The boogeyman? I shrieked, yanked the chain on the light—and saw a little black cat head poking out between the sweaters on the top shelf.
“Harley,” I screamed, heart pounding. “You scared me.”
He blinked down at me, not upset in the least. “What?” his look seemed to say.
Now that’s cattitude.
How does one define “cattitude”? It’s not a word that appears in the dictionary. But it’s a term every cat lover innately understands.
Cattitude is your kitty seeing the bottom of her dish and reacting as if it’s a four-alarm fire, meowing and head-butting you until you replenish those kibbles, then taking one bite and wandering off for a nap.
When your cat unrolls all the toilet paper in the house, even though she owns 45,976 catnip-stuffed toys, that’s cattitude.
Every time your cat pounces on your face while you’re sleeping and then darts away, strolls along that counter he knows perfectly well he’s not supposed to frequent, or struts by with a dead critter in his mouth, a random act of cattitude has occurred.
Cattitude isn’t just about what your cat does, though—it’s about that “I-don’t-care, you’re-human-and-you’ll-never-totally-get-why-I-do-what-I-do” look. Cattitude is about being unapologetically feline. Cats don’t accept blame, they don’t feel regret, and they never take “no” for an answer.
Deep down, maybe not so deep down, every cat believes he is king of the world. He also believes this fact is so obvious, it’s not even worth discussing. In a difference of opinion, you’re human, he’s a cat. Case dismissed. Hey, we got any tuna?
Does YOUR cat have cattitude? Send us a photo of your kitty displaying “cattitude”—and we’ll showcase our faves in a Love Dem Cats slideshow! Email your photo to lovedemcats@guideposts.org. Be sure to include your cat’s name and tell us a little about what he or she is doing in the picture. Even if it’s simply, “Muffin haz a mad.” (We’re cat people. We get it.)
—Allison Ruffing
—–
Find the inspiration you’re looking for in Time Out for the Spirit‘s more than 250 two-minute devotionals, each including a Scripture, a Prayer and a true story.
