Sunday 20 July 2014

Moon Cat, Lion Cat and Sir Felix

Every cat I've ever had seems to respond to one favourite phrase that makes him or her purr and preen. With Petal, the cat I had during my short, ill-fated marriage several decades ago, the words that made her go into ecstasies were 'Little silver moon cat'. When I crooned that line, her eyes would close, her paws would extend and begin kneading and the purr was deafening.

Flad's ecstasy line is 'Sir Felix Flad'. Every time I call him that, the golden eyes shut and the purr grows to a crescendo as he nuzzles my hand.

And now I've discovered Charlie's favourite compliment. When I call him, 'My gorgeous golden lion cat,' he rolls to one side, then the other, then presents his ginger tummy for a stroke, an invitation I only accepted once as the multiple claw holes turned my arm into a sieve.

Here is Charlie in the garden in the cool of early evening yesterday, displaying his lion teeth!




3 comments:

Jackie Sayle said...

Yes, every cat does seem to like certain words said to them, but I took exception to some I saw on the internet the day before yesterday. I think the film was titled Cutest Kitten Ever or something like that and the kitten, which was sitting in a jute bowl with a blanket in it was cute, but not so its American owner. She began by addressing it has her'greasy litle muffin' (say what??) and then just got more and more annoying with her commentary and distracted me from the kitten so much that I didn't watch the film to the end.

Perovskia said...

I love it. I've never seen cats get so excited over phrases.

hydra said...

I wonder if dogs react the same way? I suppose it's the tone of voice you use, not the actual words - though certain sounds do make cats react. I make a 'zhoom, zhoom' noise that Flad loves. He also loves 'woodgie, woodgie', for some reason. Feline baby-talk!