Speak Easy

Increasingly I have become overwhelmed at the prospect of trying to pick up a second language. The plan has always been to pick up Spanish, and that plan is still intact. But, while Spanish and English predominate in my section of the country, many, many, ethnicities are represented, such as Polish, Lithuanian, Italian, and Portuguese, to name a few. I might add French and Arabic as well. I marvel at the way many people I meet speak more than one language and I feel left behind, with my one.

Interestingly, the one skill I picked up in the year that I have now been working in a hospital that is renown for respiratory care is lip-reading. It was daunting at first. Think of all the accents and ways of speaking you encounter in people with spoken language and it all applies to lip-leading too. People have different inflection in their expression. One day early on I came to the understanding that I was attempting to lip-read in Spanish!!!

There are neural disorders that preclude even mouthing words. Over time, after that day of the shock about trying to lip-read in Spanish, I have come to understand we are communicating regardless of spoken language. The people I am attempting to lip-read in Spanish communicate with me even though I have no Spanish. Daily, as I finish my shift, I wonder how in the world we communicated at all. And I do not have the answer.

I notice that many people express discomfort at hearing so much non-English spoken and make disparaging remarks about people they do not even know. Communication, though, transcends spoken language. I mean, even, and especially, your pets are "reading" you.

I will still stick with the plan to learn to speak Spanish but I am happy to find communication in many forms.

Henry is Home

This entry needs to begin with one very important piece of information and that is that my Ancie cat died on March 30, 2010, at the age of almost-18. I had never had a pet companion that long. My really old kitty, Fluffy, had died two years before at the age of 21, but they arrived to our house within two weeks of each other, and Ancie first, back in 1992. Maureen voiced my own query on the matter one time, wondering about Fluffy watching her grow from toddler to adult, what did she make of it? In eighteen years, a lot has happened, and Ancie (and Fluff) walked that journey with us. That means a lot.

Spike and Ancie had a nice thing going. He's a really good boy, really loving, and they grew companionable. Then, her kidneys failed entirely, and, well, that was that. Inasmuch as Spike is shamelessly devoted to me, I also wanted a cat companion for him. Enter Henry.

Like Spike, Henry comes to me via The Feline Foundation of Greater Washington, or FFGW, for whom my sister is a foster mom. I fell in love with Henry out of her stories about him.

Henry is a nine-month old Siamese youngster. The outstanding thing about him is that he is blind and probably since birth. The veterinary ophthalmologist said that he has eyes, but they are very small, and hidden behind a layer of tissue. The little note that came with him, the one that gives his story, what the FFGW knows about him, is that he came out of a "high kill" shelter in North Carolina in a group of eight kittens to a woman with a horse farm. He was known as Rose. That lady took all eight to the veterinarian for check-ups, vaccinations, and neutering. He was then known as Stevie the Wonder Cat, a la Stevie Wonder . . .

Siamese Rescue wouldn't take him. He qualifies as a Lynx Point Siamese Cat but they thought he would be hard to place because he is "medically challenged."

My sister and I went through a silly phase of trying to come up with the right name for this cat, briefly choosing the name Ajne, the chakra for inner sight. It was just too hard to say! When the decision was made that he would come home to me in Connecticut, I decided on Henry, the Cross Country Cat, as in the Mary Calhoun books.

He is truly amazing and awesome! First, he made the arduous six-hour-drive-that-took-nine-and-a-half-hours home like a trooper. Car riding does not phase him in the least. Nothing phases him. The kids were all home, waiting up for his arrival, swooped him out of the car while the engine was still running, and into the house.

He explored the whole house, in its entirety, then and there. He marched purposefully, nose held up just a little, fore paws a little high stepping, like a gaited horse, and didn't walk into much, pretty much navigated. He hit one wall. Also, he marched straight into Spike, who looked baffled. I don't understand how he does it.

So he's been home three days. In the first 24 hours, he won over the two dogs and Spike. He is fearless, intrepid, inquisitive, and brilliant. Each day, I can hardly tear myself away to do the things I am expected to do, like go to work. I love watching him explore his new home and interact with everyone. And especially, I love to watch him and Spike play.

At some point, and I hope soon, I will stop thinking of him as a blind Siamese cat, and stop referring to him that way. As of now, I am still transfixed watching him do the things young cats do, and realize he's stalking, pouncing, and playing with toys, despite being unable to see. He's darned cool, that cat! "Some smart cat!"

Welcome home Henry!

Love from your new mom