Dear Team Steven,
Can you believe that the countdown to summer’s end has begun, and we will soon be heading into fall?
If you’re like Steven or me, you will be happy to see the summer heat and humidity subside. Summer sunshine is certainly beautiful but, when scorching heat limits solarium time, well, as Steven says, “What good is it?” He’s not really a fussbudget. Steven is just very pragmatic.
Our resident philosopher has, for now, moved his perpetual pondering indoors. A deep thinker, Steven occasionally shares his quiet musings with me. I must say, they are very entertaining and sometimes profound. Recently, we had a marvelous conversation about a uniquely human expression: “The cat’s meow.”
Steven often finds the idioms and slang people use to be incredibly silly and, sometimes, completely mundane (ho-hum). But “the cat’s meow” is different! Used to describe someone or something that is extremely good, top-notch, or the latest and greatest thing, the term really is an honorific to our feline friends. Steven happily embraces this wonderful expression, but he told me he is completely flummoxed by “the cat’s pajamas.” Ridiculous, he says! Both expressions appear to come from the 1920’s “Jazz Age” and, while the former is right on the money, the latter just makes no sense at all to Steven. A cat wearing pajamas? Indeed!
Steven took the opportunity to inform me that, while humans use “the cat’s meow” to highlight excellence, actual meows are unique – there are nearly 100 different vocalizations cats use to communicate. Steven also informed me these pet sounds are primarily used to communicate with humans, not other cats. In other words, among themselves, cats quietly believe talking is almost entirely unnecessary, except to entertain those “big, relatively hairless things that feed us.” I told Steven I thought that was a little snarky, but he just said, “I’m old,” and shrugged.
Steven seems to have more trouble getting around these days. Both he and his roommate, Gator, are overweight. We are trying to adjust the diet and food amounts for both these boys while also keeping their roomie, Betty, well-fed.
It’s a challenge, and Steven hasn’t taken any of my weight loss suggestions lightly. In fact, after our last visit, I think I heard him mumble one well-chosen word: “Snarky.” I fully understand what he means!
You, however, remain high in Steven’s esteem – “the cat’s meow,” as it were. Thank you for all you do for our orange wonder boy.
Until next month … I’ll be trying to appease Steven and salvage our relationship. It looks like apologies may be in order!
Your correspondent,
Tina