Truss - Making the cat laugh: one womans journal of single life on the margins

LYNNE TRUSS

Making the Cat Laugh

One Womans Journal of Single Life on the Margins

No Valentines from the cats again. Sometimes I wonder whether they are working as hard at this relationship as I am. Few other pets, I imagine, were lucky enough to find their Valentines day breakfasts laid out on heart-shaped trays, with the words From Guess Who artfully arranged in Kitbits around the edge. But what do I get in return? Not even a single rose. Not even a Charming thought, dear. Must rush. Just the usual unceremonious leap through the cat-flap; the usual glimpse of the flourished furry backside, with its Eat my shorts connotation. Wearily I sweep up the Kitbits with a dustpan and brush, and try to remember whether King Lear was talking about pets when he coined the phrase about the serpents tooth.

Of course, the world would be a distinctly different place if cats suddenly comprehended the concept of give and take if every time you struggled home with a hundredweight of cat food and said accusingly, This is all for you, you know, the kitties accordingly hung their heads and felt embarrassed. Imagine the scene on the garden wall: Honestly, guys, Id love to come out. But the old lady gave me Sheba this morning, and I kind of feel obligated to stay home. She gave you Sheba? Yeah. But dont go on about it. I feel bad enough that I can never remember to wipe my feet when I come in from the garden. When I think of how much she does for me (breaks down in sobs).

Instead, one takes ones thanks in other ways. For example, take the Valentines present I bought them: a new cat-nip toy, shaped like a stick of dynamite. This has gone down gratifyingly well, even though the joke misfired slightly. You see, I had fancied the idea of a cat streaking through doorways with a stick of dynamite between its jaws, looking as though it had heroically dived into a threatened mine-shaft and recovered the explosive just in time to save countless lives. In this Lassie Come Home fantasy, however, I was disappointed. Instead, cat number one reacted to the dynamite by drooling an alarming quantity of gooey stuff all over it (as though producing ectoplasm), and then hugging it to his chest and trying to kick it to death with his back paws.

Yet all is not lost. If the cat chooses to reject the heroic image, I can still make the best of it. With a few subtle adjustments to my original plan, I can now play a highly amusing game with the other cat which involves shouting, Quick! Take cover! Busters got a stick of dynamite, and well all be blown sky-high! And I dive behind the sofa.

I suppose all this gratitude stuff has been brought to mind because I recently purchased a very expensive cat-accessory, which has somehow failed to elicit huzzahs of appreciation. In fact, it has been completely cold-shouldered. Called a cats cradle, it is a special fleecy-covered cat-hammock which hooks on to a radiator. The cat is suspended in a cocoon of warmth. A brilliant invention, you might think. Any rational cat would jump straight into it. Too stupid to appreciate the full glory of my gift, however, my own cats sleep underneath it (as though it shelters them from rain), and I begin to lose patience.

Come on, kitties, I trilled (at first). Mmmm, I rubbed my cheek on the fleecy stuff. Isnt this lovely? Wouldnt this make you feel like a well, er, like an Eastern potentate, or a genie on a magic carpet, or a very fortunate cat having a nice lie-down suspended from a radiator? However, I stopped this approach after a week of failure. Now I pull on my thick gardening gloves, grab a wriggling cat by the waist, and hold it firmly on its new bed for about forty-five seconds until it breaks away.

I am reminded of a rather inadequate thing that men sometimes say to women, in an attempt to reassure them. The woman says, I never know if you love me, Jonathan, and the man replies smoothly, Well, Im here, arent I? The sub-text to this corny evasion (which fools nobody) is a very interesting cheat it suggests that, should the slightest thing be wrong with this mans affections, he would of course push off immediately into the wintry night, rather than spend another minute compromising his integrity at the nice fireside with cups of tea.

Having a cat, I find, makes you susceptible to this line of reasoning perhaps because it is your only direct line of consolation. I wonder if he loves me, you think occasionally (perhaps as you search the doormat in vain for Valentines with paw-prints on them). And then you gently lift the can-opener from its velvet cushion in the soundproofed kitchen, and with a loud ker-chunk-chunk a cat comes cannoning through the cat-flap, and skids backwards across the lino on its bum. And you think cheerfully, Well, of course he does. I mean, hes here, isnt he?

Having now worked at home for just over three weeks, I realize I have broken the longest-ever-period-in-my-life-away-from-the-office barrier, thus confirming that I am definitely not on holiday. So I felt this would be a good time to give any would-be freelancers the benefits of my experience.

1. Advantages:

a) The main advantage of working at home is that you get to find out what cats really do all day. This means they can never again expect you to fall for their heavens-what-a-hard-day-Ive-had routine.

b) Also important, you rapidly disabuse yourself of the notion that a novel waits to be written about the fascinating diurnal rhythms of a South London postal district.

c) There is a lot of excitement generated by the arrival of the postman, who delivers lots of press releases and books. Sometimes he chooses not to put a package through the specially enlarged letterbox, but thoughtfully leaves a note telling you to trek three miles to the sorting office to pick it up. Glad of the fresh air, you give thanks for the opportunity to spend a whole morning on a fools errand. Luckily, the postman never delivers cheques, otherwise you would have to waste a lot of time making boring trips to the bank as well.

d) Where you used to miss good bits on Start the Week because you had crashed the car into a BMW on Hyde Park Corner, now you can listen to the whole programme from underneath the duvet. Then you can hear Money Box, Morning Story and the Daily Service. A good programme to get out of bed to is The World at One. Within a week, the metaphorical lark gives up waiting for you, and rises unaccompanied.

e) Where you used to do the shopping once a month, and buy 10lb bags of frozen rissoles, now you learn that you can visit the same corner-shop five times in a single day before the proprietor gets suspicious and starts following you around.

2. Disadvantages:

a) Cats dont talk very much, and if you ask one to copy-taste a piece you have written, he will probably sit on it with his back to you.

b) Whenever serious work is contemplated, the words Time for a little something spring immediately to mind; ditto the words Theres no point carrying on when youre tired, is there?, and They can probably wait another day for this, actually.

c) When you read your pieces in print, the key sentence has always been cut, and the best joke ruined by a misprint. But when you run along to the newsagents to amend all remaining copies, the shopkeeper recognizing you from 1(e) is unsympathetic. Why dont you get yourself a proper job? he says. The trouble with you is youve too much time on your hands.

An old friend of mine, who five years ago migrated to the country with her husband to propagate children and rear a garden, recently sent me a card which I didnt know quite how to take. Wishing you all good luck, she wrote, on your chosen path. I sat looking at it with my fingers in my mouth. What did she mean, exactly, by this notion of the chosen path? I assumed she meant it kindly, but it made me feel suddenly exposed and distant. Hey, where did everybody go? Supposing that she imagined herself on a path radically divergent from mine, I instantly pictured myself labouring alone up a narrow, steep, dusty, brambly trail with a determined look on my face, as though illustrating a modern-day parable about the grim sacrifices of feminism.