LIFE Cats
5/5
()
About this ebook
Read more from The Editors Of Life
LIFE Inside the Disney Parks: The Happiest Places on Earth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Queen Elizabeth at 90: The Story of Britain's Longest Reigning Monarch Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE Chicago Cubs: Champions at Last Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE The Rat Pack: The Original Bad Boys Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE Walt Disney: From Mickey to the Magic Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE Diana: A Princess Remembered Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Royal Weddings: Grandeur, Romance, and Tradition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE The World's Most Haunted Places: Creepy, Ghostly, and Notorious Spots Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Bob Dylan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE Anne Frank: The Diary at 70: Her Life and Her Legacy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Dogs: Why We Need Them. Why They Need Us. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE The Moon Landing: 50 Years Later Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Mickey Mouse at 90: LIFE Celebrates an American Icon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE The Enduring Legacy of Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Hidden Hollywood: Rare Images of a Golden Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Race to Solve an Ancient Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Pearl Harbor: 75 Years Later: The Attach - The Aftermath - The Legacy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE 1968: The Year That Changed America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE Sherlock Holmes: The Story Behind the World's Greatest Detective Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE The Vietnam Wars: 50 Years Ago--Two Countries Torn Apart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE The Great Space Race: How the U.S. Beat the Russians to the Moon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Robert. F. Kennedy (BAZ Billing): An American Legacy, 50 Years Later Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Casablanca: The Most Beloved Movie of All Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Queen Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Godzilla Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE John F. Kennedy: The Legacy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE The 1960s: The Decade When Everything Changed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Remembering Kurt Cobain: The Icon at 50 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Manson Family Murders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to LIFE Cats
Related ebooks
Cats Behaving Badly: Why Cats Do the Naughty Things They Do Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5LIFE Dogs: Why We Need Them. Why They Need Us. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCats Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Our Feline Friends Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Do Cats Hear with Their Feet?: Where Cats Come From, What We Know About Them, and What They Think About Us Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWHY CATS ACT WEIRD : A Brief Guide to (Almost) Understanding Feline Behavior Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrazy Bitch: Living with Canine Compulsive Disorder Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Adopting Cats and Kittens: A Care and Training Guide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Amazing Life of Cats Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJuniper: The Happiest Fox Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cats Don't Always Land on Their Feet: Hundreds of Fascinating Facts from the Cat World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Do Cats Do That?: Real Answers to the Curious Things Cats Do? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cats: Cat Care: Kitten Care: How To Take Care Of And Train Your Cat Or Kitten Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Cat's Meow: Everything You Need to Know about Caring for Your Cat Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stray Cat Handbook Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Longhaired Cat: An Owner's Guide to a Happy Healthy Pet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Raw Facts of Feline Feeding Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCat Shaming Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Cat Lover's Compendium: Quotes, Facts, and Other Adorable Purr-ls of Wisdom Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Cat Encyclopedia for Kids Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Life in Estuaries Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Listen to Your Cat: The Complete Guide to Communicating with Your Feline Friend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Little Book of Lore for Dog Lovers: A Compendium of Doggone Facts, History, and Legend Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGolden Retriever Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCompetability: Solving Behavior Problems in Your Multi-Cat Household Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kitchen-Made Pet Food Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYou Need More Sleep: Advice from Cats Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Simon's Cat Off to the Vet: And Other Cat-astrophes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Your Cat Is Trying To Tell You: A Head-to-Tail Guide for Your Cat's Symptoms - and Solutions Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Shiba Inu Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Humane Society of the United States Complete Guide to Cat Care Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Cats For You
What Cats Want: An Illustrated Guide for Truly Understanding Your Cat Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Street Cat Named Bob: And How He Saved My Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Culprit Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCats For Dummies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Simon's Cat vs. the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Old Possum's Book Of Practical Cats Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCLEO: The Cat Who Mended a Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5365 Fascinating Facts You Didn't Know About Your Cat: Fascinating Cat Facts Series, #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5100 Ways to Understand Your Cat Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How To Live With A Neurotic Dog Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Total Cat Manual: Meet, Love, and Care for Your New Best Friend Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Goodbye, Friend: Healing Wisdom for Anyone Who Has Ever Lost a Pet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook, Fully Revised and Updated Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Clicker Training For Cats: Successfully train cats with Cat Clicker Training Book for a gentle cat education Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHappy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kitten Care & Training: An Owner's Guide to a Happy Healthy Pet Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Tribe of Tiger: Cats and Their Culture Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Everything Cat Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Simon's Cat in Kitten Chaos Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The World According to Bob: The Further Adventures of One Man and His Streetwise Cat Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cats Are Weird: And More Observations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cats' Miscellany Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/53 Quick & Easy Ways to Help a Frightened Cat: A Cat Behavior Guide Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bizarre Cat Facts: Strange & Unusual Things About Kitties: Our Bizarre Cats Series, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Veterinary Guide for Animal Owners, 2nd Edition: Caring for Cats, Dogs, Chickens, Sheep, Cattle, Rabbits, and More Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCat Training: The Definitive Step By Step Guide to Training Your Cat Positively, With Minimal Effort Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Original Cat Bible: The Definitive Source for All Things Cat Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for LIFE Cats
1 rating0 reviews
Book preview
LIFE Cats - The Editors of LIFE
CATS
Introduction
How Often Do We Celebrate the Life of a Cat?
By Kostya Kennedy
Even when batting a toy mouse, Kaya rarely extended his claws.
One morning, some years ago when I was living in New York City, I gathered Kaya into an old blue shawl and carried him eight blocks to the animal clinic to be put to sleep. He had been my cat since I was in the ninth grade. I named him after the Bob Marley album. Nineteen years is a long time for a domestic short hair,
the vet said, stroking him.
Kaya still had a little life in him at the end. On the walk over to the clinic he batted at my chin from inside his wrap. I talked to him matter-of-factly, telling him about a recent CNN/New York Times poll that had voted him one of the seven best cats in the Northeast. I often told him things like this over the years: my version of coochy-coochy-coo.
Kaya always tolerated the stuff about the polls, though he must have known he wasn’t all that. Not compared to his brother Korduroy, anyway. Korduroy did things you’d tell people about. He would stand in the road near the STOP sign, for example, and when a car pulled up, he’d jump on the hood and peer into the windshield. Kaya would watch this impassively, and he also looked on when Korduroy played elaborate play-fighting games with the neighbor’s German shepherd. Next to Korduroy, a skilled small-game hunter who knocked on our front door by putting a paw into the mail-slot, Kaya seemed a simpleton.
He was docile and deliberate and he purred a lot. He didn’t much go for killing things but he got into sudden, spirited battles with ballpoint pens and dangling extension cords. He had white mittens on his front paws, white knee-length stockings on his hind legs, and soft snowy fur around his muzzle, neck, and breast. Otherwise he was cloaked in a hodgepodge of blacks and browns. He had wide, yellow-green eyes. He lay down a lot.
Among me and my immediate family we’ve had maybe a dozen cats over the years—not including the eight kittens that once roamed my parents’ house after Palaleela had her litter—and there is no question that in matters of decency and kindness Kaya was the best of the lot. He let Korduroy eat first. He put up with two-year-olds who tugged his tail. He kept you company. Many cats are keen to human suffering but none was keener than Kaya. When someone was sad, Kaya always came around. Mow,
he’d say, and look up at you.
Kaya appreciated good, simple things: being brushed with a fine comb, warm chicken scraps, a scratch behind the ears, weekends on the Cape, a place to sleep at the foot of the bed. How often do we celebrate the life of a cat?
Maybe it was because he didn’t know any tricks that in the last few years of his life, Kaya began to talk. He mewed incessantly. His most common issuance was a loud, plaintive wail that sounded more like a human baby than any animal I’ve heard. Dude, you’ve got a kid over there?
friends would say during phone conversations. My professional acquaintances knew him too. I’d be interviewing someone, and when Kaya’s voice filled the phone lines I’d sense the person on the other end ignoring it uncomfortably. I know,
I’d say to Kaya afterward, it can be hard to be a cat.
Kaya delivered other sounds besides that trademark yowl. He had a two-beat high-pitched me-ow for when he was playing happily or anticipating food. He gave a short, chirplike mew as a greeting when he walked into a room. His long trilling mew meant he wanted to go out. A low, guttural reowwl
said he was encountering another cat. An airy half-mew, half-yawn meant he was waking up, and Kaya’s odd, unnerving series of yips told you he sensed a thunderstorm on its way. Whatever Kaya’s agenda, the only sure way to quiet him was to take him onto your lap.
The mewing became a backdrop to my life that did not fade until the very end. When I made the appointment at the clinic, Kaya had been sick for several weeks. Thyroid condition. He slept nearly all the time and he couldn’t keep his medicine down. He stopped jumping up onto the bed at night. He kept to a corner of the apartment, venturing out every few hours to stare into his water dish and take a few halfhearted laps. When his mewing died down, a strange silence settled upon the apartment. Around that