Hi, and welcome to the new blog for all our fellow feline fanatics out there. We’re three GUIDEPOSTS staffers who sure love dem cats—with all their quirks and eccentricities. They know how to purr their way into our hearts and bring joy to our lives.
Hope you enjoy getting to know our cats, and we’d love to hear about yours! We’ll be sharing blogging duties and opening one week a month to you, so you can shout out your pretty kitties.
Want to tell us about your cats? Just email us at lovedemcats@guideposts.org
Every night, as I settle under the covers and close my eyes, I feel two paws on my chest. Then I feel a 15-pound dead weight flop down on me. By the time I realize what’s happening and open my eyes, I find myself staring straight at a cat’s backside.
“Dean!” I usually exclaim. The cat, perched on my torso, doesn’t move. At most, she’ll cock her head and glance back at me with those doughy cat eyes that seem to say, “what, don’t you love me?” Eventually, I relent, and her soft, contented purring lulls me to sleep.
Each morning I wake up and feel more paws on my chest. Four paws, to be exact, doing a little jig. But it doesn’t feel like a dead weight. That’s how I know it’s only Sal, my kitten-sized cat, doing the “finally, you’re awake!” dance.
“Sal!” I usually snap. She’ll stop her jig, look at me and almost as if to say “sorry,” nuzzle my face in apology. All in all, not a bad alarm clock.
My two cats: they’re quite literally like night and day. They’re sisters from the same litter, but one is largely black with white splotches (Sal) and the other is largely white with black splotches (Dean). One is teeny-tiny (Sal) and the other has a belly that brushes the floor when she walks (Dean). One loves to play and be held (Sal), and the other hates being held but will cuddle with you any time, any place (Dean).
They were originally my fiancé’s cats (I’ve since adopted them as well), and he named them after Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, two characters from Jack Kerouac’s novel, On the Road. “Yeah so what if they’re boys names!” my fiancé always says, “They suit their personalities.”
It’s very true. Sal resembles the cautious yet fun-loving Sal Paradise, while Dean is more cleverly quirky and impulsive—the attitude that made the character Dean Moriarty so famous.
Despite their differences in size, color and habit, my two 5-year-old tuxedo cats get along famously. They groom each other constantly, and can often be found in repose like in the picture above, curled up in a warm and loving bundle.
Sal’s favorite time of day may be the morning, and Dean’s at bedtime, but my favorite time of day is any moment I can spend horsing around with these gals!
—Jessica Bloustein
Want to tell us about your cats? Just email us at lovedemcats@guideposts.org
