Piawacket - A Love Story

I had a cat.  Well, now that's not quite correct.  A member of the feline persuasion agreed to share domicile with me.  And she was not just a cat.  She was Siamese.  AND she was cross-eyed part of the time.  Now the cross-eyed business was a good thing because you see this cat was pixilated.  When she was in the throes of this condition she was cross-eyed so we all had good enough warning to beware around her.  I named her Piawacket after the cat in Bell, Book and Candle.  Piawacket had a son, Chan Chan.  My son was 3 or so when Chan was born and he was attempting to name him Charlie Chan but it just kept coming out Chan Chan and so that is what it became.  Piawacket was an adept huntress and her preferred prey was lizards.  And she caught them too!  Then they would shed their tail and run off to safety and Piawacket would return to her pillow the supreme victor.  She caught her prey and did not have to (yechhhh) actually devour it.  She much preferred her Fancy Feast and roasted chicken.  Chan Chan liked to hunt birds.  Our yard always had many birds, both before and after Chan's arrival.  Piawacket ghosted through the ferns on silken paws.  Chan Chan sneaked across the tree branch BOOM BOOM BA BOOM BAMBA BOOM!  He just didn't have his mother's light touch with the paw.  Yes, we had plenty of birds in our yard.  It wasn't her fault that Chan was such a poor hunter, Piawacket tried and tried to teach him.  Somehow the birds always knew the days she was training him and they flew up much earlier than when Chan hunted alone.  Piawacket was a certain threat.  Witness all the lizard tails cluttering the yard.

Piawacket was not a cuddler in the traditional sense.  While you sat on the sofa, she would pace back and forth presenting various portions of herself to be petted and stroked.  She would allow herself to be picked up and held for short periods.  But it was most advisable to allow her to go free when she indicated that she was ready.  She didn't tend to signal politely more than once or twice.  Did I mention she was meticulous about herself?  Those silken paws sheathed claws honed to razor sharpness.  As a result, when Piawacket wished to be released to go on her way, 2 leggers tended to comply with alacrity.

Large parts of each day were taken in exploration.  She would go to the front door and demand release.  There was a doggie door and the gate in the fence present no barrier to her.  But when she wanted out the front door, she wanted out the front door and she did not want to go around Robin Hood's barn to get there.  And so she would be let out the front door and we would not see her for a few hours.  She had a route she followed.  She would walk across the street and hop up on the fence between 2 houses and continue on south into the fruit trees.  Beyond that I could not see her and travels could only be imagined.

Certain days she was cross-eyed.  Always when a Santa Ana wind was blowing.  And certain days when she out in the early morning dew she would return that way.  It could only be one thing.  She was talking to the pixies.  It accounted for her super stealth powers.  Once overtaken by pixilation, she would walk across the living room and without stopping raise straight up about 18 inches, return straight down and keep walking as though nothing had happened.  We always knew to check here eyes on those days.  She stayed close to home on pixilated days forsaking her explorations.  Perhaps it was hard to see to cross the street or perhaps her mind was cluttered with her "other" thoughts.  The things she discussed with the pixies.  This was always an interesting subject for me to ponder.

I did not know for years that Piawacket's explorations were really a round of home visits.  (She had 5 older ladies she visited, I later discovered.)  One fall when we had a lot of Santa Ana winds and Piawacket had been pixilated and staying home a lot, a nice lady came to my door.  She was inquiring about the health of my Siamese cat.  She was one of the ladies Piawacket visited.  I asked her in for a cup of coffee and we had a very informative talk for both of us.  Piawacket seemed glad to see her and presented herself for stroll by petting.  It turned out that Piawacket came by her house several time a week to be petted, show off her lizard hunting capabilities and be fed treats.  Who could ever guess that this was going with 4 other ladies as well?  She was always slim and sleek and lithe.  But her visits gave each of them something to look forward to.  They were all widowed and lived alone.  As exasperating as it might be, you just can't be angry with a cat for wandering off when you know where she's going.  But on pixilated days she stayed home.  She and the pixies had lots to share.  And much as I may have wanted to be, 2 leggers are just not on that wave length.

Piawacket lived to be 21 years old and did not die of natural causes at that.  A new neighbor across the street hit her with his truck.

I have not had a cat since.  Piawacket was just irreplaceable.

Our Feathers and other pithy translations.

My dearest friend, a thoughtful and caring man, leaves me a note on Google talk before he leaves for church in Brownsville, Texas, each Sunday morning.  I arise in Orange County, CA, a short time thereafter, get my coffee and go to the computer to read my morning greeting.  Oh I should probably mention the notes are almost always in Croatian which I do not speak or read.  I use Google Translator.  This is the best translator I have found on the internet but what with the dynamic shifts of our languages, especially with the internet, translation is a huge challenge.  And so there are bound to little slip-ups.  As in one of my lovely Sunday morning messages which the Translator told me  said:

 "Embrace the finches!  Happy mischief!  I'll see you after church."

Did I mention that the reason he leaves a bit early is because he is the pastor?  Now tell me if you could have kept from spraying just a little bit of coffee reading that one.

The thing is you just have to be kind of careful when you are using a translator and understand that what it is telling you may not be exactly what was said by the sender....quite.  I have found that the best policy is just to let people know first thing that you are using a translator.  That way if it comes out stupid, it isn't your fault.  And sometimes even if it is you saying the occasional really stupid and inane remark, you can blame the translator anyway.

Here is a translation of a comment left on one of my friend's YouTube videos:

"Hello dear friend, to sorrows were not enough to doubt lacking, Crazy, have fun, przymrz.  Eye, and smile broadly. Sieze every good moment to remember later miles.  laugh out loud, do not shred the head, then success is ready.  I wish wonderful day."

While causing a good bit of head shaking (no shredding mind you), you really can't help but smile at that.  Though I doubt that it expresses quite the sentiments intended.  The thing is, the internet has opened the possibilities for us to talk to people from all over the world in many different languages and then given us the tools (translators) to make it work.  AND the thing is, we have to learn to think to check up on those translators and not blindly accept every word as final.  Our sense of humor can make this whole thing a delight and a  journey of enlightenment and surprise.  I encourage others to get out into the international waters after getting to know their translator.    One thing the contributor above might have wanted to do was to check Google Translators suggestions.  This translator often gives you suggestions for other ways to say something in your translation that might be better.  Every language has ways of saying things that are more familiar to its users than the absolutely proper way.  It's a useful tool and helpful.  And if I joke about it please notice I am still using it.  So let's say we share the humor among friends.  As did my friend, unwittingly, when he reminded me not to forget to say my "Oče naš, koji jesi na nebesima".  And the translator advised me not to forget my "Our Feathers, who are in heaven".  Humor.  The people of the world talking to each other and humor.  Could it get any better than that?