Reciprocity!

Isn't that a cool word?!  It has five syllables!  English is the only human language I know, but it is pretty neat and pretty hard.  So I speak English and cat and that's all.  But anyway, reciprocity is a special word. Instead of saying "if you scratch my back I'll scratch yours,"  you can say that you'll reciprocate!  Just love that word!

So the reason I'm writing about reciprocity is that I've heard some questions lately about why our servants come and wait on us every day.  Some people don't get it.  So since I understand everything, I'll explain.  The reason is that we reciprocate!  For example, when our humans feed us we show our appreciation by eating voraciously and that makes the humans happy.  That is reciprocity.  Another example is when they clean out our litter boxes and we use the clean one right away!  Our showing them so concretely how much we appreciate their work is reciprocity!  And when they clean our cages, we let them touch us!  And when they sweep and mop our floors, we let them touch us more!  We might even purr!  And when they've done all their work, sometimes we even sit on their laps!  Now that is reciprocity above and beyond any that is called for by what they do for us.  What we give to them in exchange for their service is that we allow them to love us!  How nice we are just brings tears to my eyes!  Most of the time reciprocity is a scratch for a scratch, but we cats give back above and beyond what we are given!

Don't really get it?  Well, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'm going to show you!

Now I bet you get it!  This is our servant, Vicki Anderson.  She is a very busy woman!!!!  She is a literary volunteer, she is a huge quilter and does other needle work, too!  She is even in a car club with her 1937 Ford!  (I want her to bring it to StreetCats to show us!)  This woman even takes dancing lessons!  But ever since April she has been coming to StreetCats a lot!  The only cats she has in her house aren't real ones.  And even though she has a lot of cat "stuff" in her house, she needs to touch real cats.  What would this nice lady do without us, StreetCats?!  In this picture my friend Fella is reciprocating for all she did for him that day!  (No, you can't have Fella . . . he is already in his furever home.)  You know, putting these facts in words is just overwhelming me with how special we are!  Oh my gosh, I'm not sure I fully realized just how lucky our human servants are!

THANK YOU, ME AND ALL THE STREETCATS CATS, FOR GIVING SO MUCH TO OUR HUMANS!

 

Royalty!

Have you ever met a real live royal personage?  I mean like a king or a queen, maybe a prince or princess?  How about an earl?  A duchess or duke?  Maybe a viscount?  Hey, I'd even be impressed with a lady-in-waiting!  I bet most of you haven't!  I sort of bet all of you haven't!

Well, I have!  And you can, too, if you'll just come to StreetCats of Tulsa!  I can't remember when we've ever had one of these personages living here, but we do now!  And here she is!

This, my readers, is a real live princess, Princess Snowdrop, currently of StreetCats Tulsa!  Isn't she gorgeous?!  Not as beautiful as I, of course, but I do have to admit that I don't have a title like she does. I've really been fantasizing about her staying with us.  We could change our name to StreetCatsCastle of Tulsa.  And maybe build a moat around us with a drawbridge and all that good stuff that princesses have!  Ooohhh, I just thought of this one . . . a tower!!!  I'm going to talk to Princess Snowdrop and see if she'll stay!

But wait, I can't.  This five year old royal cat needs to go to a furever home of her own.  And I do mean of her very own!  There is one problem here at StreetCats and all the other royal places she has lived.  Other cats don't like her and they pick on her!  We're going to have a talk here at StreetCats about bullying, but I don't have beautiful eyes in the back of my head and I can't be there to protect her every minute.  So she needs to be the only cat princess in her castle.  Every other cat (except for me, of course) is jealous of her so she needs her very own castle.

Oh wait!  She just asked me to tell you that she doesn't really need a castle.  If you have a castle, that's fine, of course.  But if you don't she thinks a manor house would be just fine.  No, no, she says it doesn't even have to be a manor house!  All it has to be is a residence, no matter how small, where she will be given the treatment that her royal self deserves.  That's all.

The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth

Hee hee!  Of course I'm not going to tell you the WHOLE truth!  That would take way too long!  And telling you NOTHING but the truth would be a bit boring for all of us, right?!  But I'm going to tell you one truth and I promise that I will tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth about this one thing.

Okay, here we go.  Hmmm, this is a bit harder than I thought it might be.  Before I tell you anything, let's just be clear about one thing.  Lulu can do anything she wants to do!  You knew that, right?!  After all, I am capable of running, and do run, this whole StreetCats place!  But sometimes it just makes sense to deligate things to my servants, right?!

So here it is!

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This is my servant, Vickie Sanborn!  All these pictures you see on my blog (and it is MY blog!), they are taken by Vickie!  Oh I've taken one or two along the way, but why should I take them when I have someone who used to get paid for this to do it?!  That is the great thing about these servants . . . they will do whatever I tell them to!

Ocassionally she has to have a little help from her kitty friends.  This was a day when Buttercup, who is now in her furever home, was helping.  You can tell how much Vickie appreciated that help!  I can't tell for sure exactly how Buttercup was helping, but what else could she be doing sitting on Vickie's back?!  Gee, I sort of miss Buttercup.  She was a pretty cute kitty.  But at least she's in her forever home.  Sigh.

So let's hear it for Vickie!  Doesn't she take great pictures???!!!  My blog absolutely would not be the same without her!  Thank you, Vickie!  Lulu loves you and appreciates your help!  You're welcome to take more pictures of me and my eyes anytime you want!

Karma?!

Before I tell you my story, here is a picture of me and my eyes.  I just want to assure you that, in spite of a close call, I am just fine.  So don't be worried, just read my story.

Okay, do you remember how in my last blog I was sort of, not really, but maybe just kind of making fun of my servants?  I mean it was totally innocent, of course, because they can't help that they can't see in the dark and that their noses are broken.  Well, shortly after that, I got SICK!  I ran a fever, just didn't feel like eating or drinking anything and they told me at my spa, Feline Specialties, that I was dehydrated!  I felt awful and I'm so glad that I'm back to my feeling good self!

So when I first started feeling sick I heard my servant, Linda, saying something about my not seeming myself and I looked at her, kind of like in this picture, with my eyes.  But then she just left!  Communication with these human servants can be a challenge!  But wait, I didn't mean that in a bad way!  I know they can't help it and I do love my humans!  (I think I have to be so careful what I say!)

So, a couple of days later I was really feeling bad and couldn't even pay much attention to what was going on, but I think it was my servant, Jennifer, who called Linda and told her that she thought I might really be sick.  Well, duh!  What does it take?!  (I didn't mean that!)  Linda came and got me and took me to my spa where I got complete TLC and fluids and massages and before you know it I was back to normal.  Linda and I hang together in the office a lot and she is the greatest!  And she's a good driver so I don't mind riding with her to my spa.

So . . . here is my question.  What is this karma stuff?  Was my getting sick bad karma for having made fun of my servants?  From what I've heard about karma I think that could be it!  But then my human servants, whom I had just been laughing at, saved me!  So that is surely good karma, right?  And I have to have good karma because if I don't I might come back in my next life as a chicken, or (please, no!) a university professor!  Maybe them helping me was good karma for them?   If that's how it works maybe they'll get to come back as cats!

Oh I am so confused by this karma stuff!  Do you think we can just erase all the current karma and start over?  Thank you, human servants, for seeing that I was sick, taking me to Feline Specialties and enabling me to get well because of their excellent care!  I will never make fun of you again . . . or maybe not soon.  I love you!  (But don't tell anyone!)