PAWSOME! Head Bonks, Raspy Tongues & 101 Reasons Why Cats Make Us So, So Happy (ePub)

#31: CATS SHOWER YOU WITH SURPRISE GIFTS JUST BECAUSE THEY THINK YOU’RE AWESOME

One of the very great joys in life is receiving gifts. Unfortunately, gift-giving occasions come around all too infrequently—and too often with disappointing results. (Show of hands if your junk drawer contains no fewer than five gift cards entitling you to $25 worth of merchandise in some store you’ve never spent so much as $1 in.)

And even assuming you’re one of the lucky few who can count on opening a delightful box of Just What You Wanted on Christmas or birthdays, how long has it been since someone surprised you with a thoughtful present given to commemorate nothing in particular? When was the last time somebody handed you a gift-wrapped box on a random Tuesday and said, I’m giving you this present just because I think you rock?

Do you have to think back more than ten years to answer that question? Or is the answer maybe, just maybe, never?

If you live with a cat, I’m guessing your answer is more like, A surprise gift? Why, I got one only last week! And that’s because cats adore bringing their humans considerate little love tokens for no other reason than to tell us, as clearly as if they’d said it in words, Hey, you—you’re WONDERFUL.

True, our cats will rarely bring us something we would have picked out for ourselves. Cats, after all, are working within certain insurmountable limitations, such as not having charge accounts or access to Amazon Prime delivery. Also, a cat’s worldview will differ in fundamental ways from a human’s, tending to veer more toward the practical. Sparkly baubles are all well and good, but something you can eat—now that’s solid gold, baby!

Which is why your felicitous feline will considerately place a small mouse or songbird—or, in the case of my own strictly indoor cats, plastic-and-felt reproductions of same—on your pillow, instead of a diamond bracelet or silk Hermés scarf.

But it’s the thought that counts, and the thought in this case contains just as much downright, true-blue love as if it really were diamonds or silk. That fake mouse or disturbingly real songbird {{shudder}} is your cat’s way of letting you know that he was thinking about you for no darn reason other than the fact that you—yes, you—are so indescribably marvelous that he can’t help but think about you All. The. Time.

Who could put a price tag on that?

PAWSOME!