By Kathy Hughes

Contributing Writer 

Like most animals, my cat Mimi has only two means of communication: her voice, a strident “meow” and her body language. Usually, the two are combined, with the voice used to make me aware of an emergency, and then what I call “playing Lassie,” when she leads me to the site of the disaster, while looking over her shoulder to be sure I am following her.

There are basically only three emergencies in Mimi’s repertoire: an empty food dish, an empty water dish, and some obstacle in her right of way. With the food dish, it doesn’t matter whether it is nine at night, or three in the morning, or whether she is hungry; an empty food dish deprives her of her right to eat at will, and the security of not having to depend on just in time delivery, should she want a snack.

Importantly, she wants to see my hand actually place the food into her dish; then, she can sniff the food to check it, and walk away to wait until an opportune moment when she is unobserved.

The water situation has taken some education and getting used to on my part. It turns out that cats, unlike dogs, do not like having their water dish in close proximity to their food dish. Oh, no. What they do like is having the water as close as possible to its source: a faucet — in the kitchen or bathroom sink, in the tub or shower, or the toilet. The water must be fresh, and not having sat there all day or all night. The absolute preferred source is from the tap itself, ideally left dripping for them to sample at will, or at least, left open for an on demand drink.

The obstacle problem involves a door, window or curtain which is blocking her access to a view, fresh air, or, most distressingly, to her water or food. Windows are meant to be left open in case she wants to a close-up observation post for squirrels and birds.

The signal for “open this window right now,” is a furious, repetitive pawing at the window, accompanied by wanton meowing. Once the window is open, she may decide to take the air for only a moment, but she will return later just to ensure she has access.

A fully recognized emergency is one which blocks access to food, water, or litter box. On rare occasion, the bathroom door may be inadvertently left closed. Since her water dish is on the bathroom sink (next to my toothbrushes), closing the shower curtain can inhibit her ability to use the bathtub rim to jump up to the sink for a drink of water.

I sometimes wonder what cats would do if they could utilize post-it notes. My apartment would be plastered with them! Just think, this would alleviate the necessity of constantly having to remind me to perform with due care. Since it has taken over a decade for me to accurately decode Mimi’s communications, it would probably just be a waste of time.