Archive for the ‘a niche for Zoë’ Category
Zoe finds a nest
Every Christmas my kind brother-in-law gives us a beautiful basket, filled with homemade pickles and treats and done up with such style. I always save the basket and this morning put it in a chair to go upstairs. Not three minutes later, I came out to the living room to find Zoe in the basket, the straw rearranged to suit her. Not very apologetic either! Sorry, I realise the Net is overrun with photos of well-loved cats!
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Copyright Jane Tims 2017
a place for Zoe
I’ve heard the theory that the Internet is 90% occupied by cats. I have spent a fair share of my time watching feline antics on stairways, kittens tumbling from chairs and cats sneaking up on cameras.
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The cat I spend most time with is Zoe. She is a small cat, about eight years old (whoops, my niece says Zoe is twelve)! She tries so hard to communicate and can usually make herself understood via telepathy. She sits and stares at me and I go through the list. Food? No. Water? No. Ice cubes? Yes.
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Zoe checks in with me at intervals through the day. She greets me and listens to the morning bird chorus with me. She runs in front of me to her bowls and waits while I feed her. When I am typing at the computer, she hops up and tries to help. Later, when I watch TV, she snoozes on my lap for a few minutes. She usually appears later to race through the house from corner to corner.
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Nothing special about this particular cat post. But I wish I had Zoe’s nonchalance, her utter calm, her faith that all will be well.
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Copyright Jane Tims 2016
Zoë, watching
Our feeding of the birds has given our cat, Zoë, a new form of entertainment. She sits in the chair in front of the glass of the door leading to the deck and watches. Her head swivels as each new arrival lands and selects its seed. All evening, the pupils in her eyes are as black as those of the little Flying Squirrels she sees outside the window.
The birds and squirrels know they are being watched but have decided the sphinx behind the window glass cannot harm them. For her part, Zoe knows she can only observe the antics around the feeder. She contents herself with the pantomime of predation.
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strategic hyphenation
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patience nestles into space
between edge-wise foliage
strategic paw-placement where
no dry-leaf crackle, dry-twig snap
disturbs the nothingness downwind
of furred-or-feathered prey
no tattling breeze
can carry scent-anticipation
nostril-expectation
to be pounced-upon
all muscle-twitch contained
in nervous, horizontal
flick-of-tail
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© Jane Tims 2012
string for Zoë
Our cat Zoë’s niche includes a ‘string’.
I often say our Zoë is ‘telepathetic‘. She will sit and stare me down until I understand what she wants. Sometimes she wants food. Sometimes she wants fresh water, or an ice cube (yes, an ice cube). Sometimes she wants to play, with her string. Her trust that we will figure out what she wants is pitiful.
The string is not a special toy. Any long thin peice of string will do. A shoelace or a length of thread are all the same to Zoë.
Zoë can be an acrobat when her string is part of the action. She will stalk the string and pounce on it. She will walk upright on her back legs to reach it. Sometimes she just wants to look at it.
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telepathetic
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Zoë thinks she is telepathic
sits intently, stares at me
narrow pupils on pale green eyes
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I run the list
water, cat food, litter
such simple needs
but no thought resonates
with telepathic tremble
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string
the word vibrates
as if plucked on a guitar
Zoë blinks her eyes
looks over her shoulder, utter longing
ten inch shoelace, knot at one end
pathetic on the hearth
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black pupils open round
frank pathway to brain
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© Jane Tims 2010
© Jane Tims 2011
through Zoë’s eyes
Each space is unique to its occupier. For example, two people will experience a space quite differently. How they perceive a space depends on their mood, their individual preferences for certain tastes, smells, and colours, and their background and memories.
Animals perceive spaces very differently from humans. Their eyes and ears are tuned to a broader spectrum of colour and a different range of sound frequencies.
Zoë watches the air above her
My cat Zoë sees the world very differently from me. Her perceptions are much keener. At times, she will pay sudden and rapt attention to the empty space above her. I puzzle for a moment, look a little harder, and there it is … a tiny moth I would never have seen if Zoë had not pointed the way.
If you have a pet, are you amazed at how differently they experience their space?
Zoe watches the birds in the feeders
Stalking the Wind
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the cat crouches
on the window sill
puzzles out the night
considers fireflies and the moon
explores the June bug
on the other side
of the screen
pats at a maple key
wandering on the wind
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when the door cracks open
she is ready
she slips between my feet
into the yard
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and waits
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all around her
the crickets
the tickle of grass
the scent of other cats
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no moment to gather herself
and run
scooped
into the arms of her keeper
scolded inside
dour at the window
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next time
she will not pause
bewildered
she will leap and run
kin with the fireflies
pursuit of the wind
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Published as: ‘Stalking the Wind’, Spring 1995, Green’s Magazine XXIV (1)
© Jane Tims
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