Joseph L. Kagle, Jr. Essays

What I Learned From My Cat

A short time ago we purchased a brown-leather, L-shaped couch for our living room. It had cushioned seats that fit our lifestyle and backsides. Our cat and dog love it also, jumping up to nestle close for contact comfort and soothing strokes. Then one day, the cat decided that the highest point on the back of the couch was a wonderful place for a king’s eye view and a curling-up place to spend the inside hours after a night of chorusing.

To make his throne more comfortable, we folded a Baylor blanket to fit the hole that his fifteen pounds had wiggled out of the leather. The hole is still there. Somehow, we cannot go back to a time when that cushion was classically formed. This high perch has lasted for a year. In the meantime, we bought a new doggie bed and padded it with another blanket for our canine partner. It was not a week until we had to buy a second bed for the dog since the male cat took over her resting place. The bed in the guest room has also gone to our feline lord. Dividing his sleep and rest time between the three thrones, Tumbles, our cat, enjoys the best of everyone else’s world.

Yesterday, Tumbles took over my seat where I paint, read and relax.  At first, I thought that it might be a passing phase so I sat on anther cushion for an evening of television. This morning, the cat was in my place again. A line had to drawn. I picked him up and moved him. During the day, when I was away for anything, MY PLACE was taken over again. I moved him several times, finally sitting him beside me and stroking his fur. I do love my cat.

I think that this process must be done in every aspect of our lives: a line must be drawn which says, “This far but no further.” It happens in our married life, interaction with our children, job, relations with our neighbors, tolerance for the limits to our freedom, trust in our elected officials and, of course, our own self image. This experience with my friend, the cat, has taught me to draw a line in the sands of time. There are some takeovers where silence does not work. In terms of my country, here are some lines that have been drawn by our representatives in Washington, D. C.

In a time when flexibility and creativity of thinking is most drastically needed, we are spending $5.47 BILLION (with a big B) for the National Science Foundation but only $121 million for the National Endowment for the Arts.

In a time when “fear” has been sold for political gain, business has gotten $941 million more than what is spent on safety.

This year, our government will spend $163 million for sexual abstinence education but only $13 million on adoption. In an era when we find that more youth are killed with alcohol than drugs, the anti-drug programs will get about $12 BILLION (another big B) while alcohol abuse will receive only $442 million (with a small “m”). At a time when my gas prices are outrageous, nuclear energy technology has a budget of a little more than one-half BILLION while other research into alternate energy sources receives a little over $120 million. For one that makes no sense to a thinking human being, space exploration for war will receive $16.7 BILLION and space exploration for peace (the moon, Mars and a space telescope) will receive a little over $1.8 billion.

Most interesting to an American who lives in Waco, Texas, our government has allocated $19 BILLION for reconstruction of Iraq which is more than the annual American budgets for the National Cancer Institute, Amtrak, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, Federal Air Marshalls, operation of the National Parks Service, Homeless Association Grants, the Superfund Hazardous Substance Cleanup, Home-Delivered Meals to the Elderly and youth employment and training programs.

It does not take my cat to tell me that something is wrong. Lines have been drawn and I do not understand why others have not picked up our representatives and moved them out of OUR PLACE. A new line must be drawn. It can be drawn with a vote or a letter or a protestation of some kind. If I can kick my cat, who I love dearly, out of my place on the couch, we can all kick butt and some concepts out of our national consciousness.