How do I love thee? Let me purr the ways . . .

Even though our cats can’t read or send us Valentine’s Day cards, they espouse their love for us in a myriad of ways. For the up and coming day of lovers, who knows what your felines have in store for you?  Read on for a few delightful possibilities. 

Dogs come when you call. Cats take a message and get back to you. ~ Anonymous

Bringing home unexpected gifts

Cats (at least for now) don’t have credit cards to charge flowers and chocolate and such. Instead they rely on gifts of the homemade, rustic kind to show their love for their owners. A mouse or bird with no head left on a doorstep or bedroom hallway says, “I love you” in ways well, in ways, we would rather do without but accept because we don’t want to ruffle feline feelings.

Revealing their truth about us

Someone once said that cats really do know how we feel. They know, but they don’t care. To show special love on Valentine’s Day, they may push our buttons by finding new and unexpected litter boxes and throwing up in the flowers on the dining room table. This not only means that he or she may have relinquished a hairball or eaten something disagreeable, it is also a test of our love and endurance. It goes something like this:

Will you tolerate this and forgive me, or should I move forward and claw my way up to the top of those expensive satin drapes, which is why they are there in the first place?

Cats show love by finding new and different ways to get our attention

The problem here is limiting choices because to our cats, the entire world is a cat toy. Knocking over some expensive antique lamps might work or finding a friendly face to sleep on top of. Another technique that often gets attention is to one day ignore your owners and the next day slobber all over them. Keep them guessing.

After all, we are cats, you know.

When all else fails, remember the words of the famous Cheshire Cat:

You can't help that. We're all mad here.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all.

Marjorie Dorfman