Twogreytoes is the name of a cat with whom my partner and I lived for a long time – though, regrettably, not long enough. That’s right, he didn’t live with us: we lived with him.One day he just vanished. We mourned him for half a year, and, certain that he had met a brutal fate (you don’t want to know why we thought that) we wrote a memorial verse for him. Incase you can’t read it from the picture, this is it:
…my eyes have seen the glory
of the mountains of the earth
I have been witness to the charm
Of gaia since she gave me birth
And now the brutal fate my nature
Calls me to affirms my worth
To roam the universe…
I'm not just your pretty pussie
I'm your talisman of wisdom
I can fortify your courage
Just call me and I'll come!
Just before Christmas 2001 we adopted two brothers from a local litter and called them Sox and Boof.
About a month later when I was in town, a sleek street walker rubbed up against my leg. As I bent down to pat him I had the strangest sensation. This was someone I knew. His markings exactly matched those of our precious lamented friend. As I picked him up I looked in his left ear and there was the tattoo that indicated his gender – neuter. I took him home in a state of high adulation only to find that he was not going to tolerate the new cossetees. We tried everything to keep him with us, but he ran away every time we brought him home. Finally we agreed that if he ran away again we would not go looking for him.
So why have I adopted his name? Because he lived as fully within the limitations of his physical form as it was possible to live. How do I know this? Well, apart from the adventures to which we were witness, when it became known in the street where I found him that he was “our” cat, people regaled us with heroic tales about the swashbuckler they had come to know over the seven or months that he held court in that part of town. Everyone agreed that he was the boss of the street. Dogs walked the other way or tugged back on their leashes if their owners were leading them in his direction. He never went hungry. He won the affection of patrons at the nearby café as well as people from the bakery, the butcher, the hotel and the fish shop. And grown men (well, young men, anyway) who loved him when they were little boys ask after him to this day, refusing to believe that he will not, one day, come back. Like the truth, he’s out there!
The philosopher Henri Bergson, observed that ancient Egyptians deified attributes of animals that contrasted favourably with weaknesses in the human constitution, and dismissed this as something we did on our way to becoming rulers of the universe. He wrote that before the second World War. Things have changed since then, and many people are now worried about the impact of humans on the planet and everything that lives here. We could learn a lot from animals about our place in the universe. They are not gods, but they can be teachers. What I have learned from Twogreytoes about being, is “Do whatever it takes to be who you really are, and to trust others to love you.” When Christians take the name of a saint, they do not presume to be the saint’s peer. Rather, they honour the saint and hope to live up to the qualities of a mentor – someone who has explored, more fully than most, who they really are. So I am Twogreytoes. I hope to live with courage to go where no man has gone before.
Just before Christmas 2001 we adopted two brothers from a local litter and called them Sox and Boof.
About a month later when I was in town, a sleek street walker rubbed up against my leg. As I bent down to pat him I had the strangest sensation. This was someone I knew. His markings exactly matched those of our precious lamented friend. As I picked him up I looked in his left ear and there was the tattoo that indicated his gender – neuter. I took him home in a state of high adulation only to find that he was not going to tolerate the new cossetees. We tried everything to keep him with us, but he ran away every time we brought him home. Finally we agreed that if he ran away again we would not go looking for him.
So why have I adopted his name? Because he lived as fully within the limitations of his physical form as it was possible to live. How do I know this? Well, apart from the adventures to which we were witness, when it became known in the street where I found him that he was “our” cat, people regaled us with heroic tales about the swashbuckler they had come to know over the seven or months that he held court in that part of town. Everyone agreed that he was the boss of the street. Dogs walked the other way or tugged back on their leashes if their owners were leading them in his direction. He never went hungry. He won the affection of patrons at the nearby café as well as people from the bakery, the butcher, the hotel and the fish shop. And grown men (well, young men, anyway) who loved him when they were little boys ask after him to this day, refusing to believe that he will not, one day, come back. Like the truth, he’s out there!
The philosopher Henri Bergson, observed that ancient Egyptians deified attributes of animals that contrasted favourably with weaknesses in the human constitution, and dismissed this as something we did on our way to becoming rulers of the universe. He wrote that before the second World War. Things have changed since then, and many people are now worried about the impact of humans on the planet and everything that lives here. We could learn a lot from animals about our place in the universe. They are not gods, but they can be teachers. What I have learned from Twogreytoes about being, is “Do whatever it takes to be who you really are, and to trust others to love you.” When Christians take the name of a saint, they do not presume to be the saint’s peer. Rather, they honour the saint and hope to live up to the qualities of a mentor – someone who has explored, more fully than most, who they really are. So I am Twogreytoes. I hope to live with courage to go where no man has gone before.
2 comments:
Lovely to know about two grey toes,but as we believe in India,Cats have seven homes...they never live thier life in one,they keep moving after few years from one to another till the last of their life/seventh home...so keep your fingers crossed,for i think she is very much alive but in another home!
:)
Thanks AV. He is certainly somewhere. If not in a home on this planet, then somewhere in the universe - or maybe in heaven. Either way he still lives in my heart.
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