Ailurophiles know furry secret to rich life

By John Wesley Nakao
Special to The Advertiser

Gentle, affectionate but unpredictable and wild, cats reward their owners with a lower-maintenance loyalty than their barking cousins.

Except when I lived in apartments, we always loved and kept a cat or two about. To this day, the smell of a cut-open cardboard box reminds me of the ones we lined with newspaper and rags as kids in Hilo so our precious kitty could give birth. We watched with joy and mirth as the kittens grew, played, wrestled and slept together.

That our pets trust us, there is no doubt. Once, in our Hawai'i Kai home, our cat in residence woke me from a nap with loud purring and affectionate nudges and proceeded to give birth — yow! — right next to me on the bed while I jumped up semi-dazed and scrambled about for that cardboard box.

Cats, and pets in general, keep us young — children have a natural love for animals, and almost everyone has had a loving relationship and memories of beloved pets. A friend told me of an elderly lady who kept weeping while holding and petting a visitation dog in her nursing home.

Bonds with pets, especially for introspective types, can be deeper in some primal way than bonds with fellow humans.

We have two cats — Zack, a probable part-Siamese gray tabby redeemed from the streets of Salt Lake, and Zoey who, like many a good kitty, just showed up at our doorstep one day for a feed and came back the next day to make our house her home.

Even more than my wife, the being I spend the most time with is Zack. He sleeps and wakes with me, jumps up on my lap when I'm at breakfast, resting his paw and the crook of his furry chin on my arm. He follows me to my home office — helping Daddy, I suppose — to doze in his office-manager box on my desk, which I use to keep him from lying on my papers.

•	"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats." — Dr. Albert Schweitzer

Zack, and to a lesser degree Zoey, like to follow us in dog-like manner in and out of the house, pausing to snooze if we take too long in any one area.

You wouldn't think it, but cats are habitual creatures. Every night Zack meows for us to carry him in the bathroom as we prepare to bathe or retire. He then drapes his head and paws over a shoulder, narrowing his eyes in purring contentment as we ponder the mirrored sight of this 11-pound baby. It's a nightly tension-relieving and bonding ritual for Zack and his owners.

Zack has earned his keep as a hunter. Over the years, he has caught, killed and most often eaten numerous rats and lesser numbers of mice. He has — surprise! — brought and plopped two dead rats in the living room to show off. Disturbing to me, he has captured and killed birds and lizards as well. Zack also relishes the daddy longlegs that pester the inside of the house. Oddly, he will not see these creatures until we provoke one to move — then an aggressive chase always ends in open-mouthed consumption.

Many artistic and literary types have favored cats for their graceful, playful and semi-wild personalities. Nobel laureates Ernest Hemingway and T.S. Elliot were noted cat lovers. Hemingway once kept as many as 80 cats in his Key West home, now a museum where 60 or so polydactyl (six-toed) kitties live off the fruits of his literary genius, in accordance with his will.

T.S. Elliot wrote about his love of cats in "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats," which Andrew Lloyd Weber recreated into the renowned musical "Cats." Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Albert Schweitzer also was an ailuro-phile, or cat-lover.

One of the best things about having a home is that you can keep cats in it: It has made our house more of a home, for we have a pet that is at once domesticated and part wild, playful yet gentle, affectionate yet independent, indoor/outdoor and self-cleaning. Zack is a most unusual cat, and with his beautifully striped sister provides everyday joys to his owners.

June is Adopt a Kitty Month, and you can get a nearly free kitty, doggy or bunny from the Hawaiian Humane Society. Call 946-2187 or see www.hawaiianhumane.org. Better yet, check out the wide variety of remarkable animals at the office, 2700 Wai'alae Ave. in Mo'ili'ili. Good pets, like family, friends and faith, improve the quality of our lives.

John Wesley Nakao is a long-term care and registered representative with John Hancock Financial Services and a volunteer chaplain at Kapi'olani Medical Center at Pali Momi.