Cat Poem: She Sights a Bird by Emily Dickinson*
She sights a Bird-she chuckles-
She Flattens-then she crawls-
She runs without the look of feet-
Her eyes increase to Balls-
I have a feline friend. Her name is Clarabelle. Sometimes I call her CB. She is an American Shorthair Her birthday is March 29, 2021, and she will be three years old 21 days from now.
Clarabelle is a real charmer. At night, she jumps in my lap and is soon fast asleep. During the day, C.B. rubs against me. Her Sun is together with Venus in Aries, while her Moon is in Libra. Born at 9:30 in the morning, she has Taurus rising. CB likes her creature comforts. She will climb under the covers or sleep atop a pillow at nap time. Her Mars, the ruler of her Sun Sign, is in communicative Gemini. Clarabelle is endlessly curious about her immediate environment. She leaps atop doors and from there to shelves in closets to check on corners, nooks, and crannies. Mercury is in Pisces.
Cats will blink at you to say they love you. Clarabelle also licks my nose. You can see the affection in her eyes. She also rolls over on her side.
Articles on the internet say a cat has the IQ of a toddler. It may be higher. My alarm went off this morning, and CB also made it known it was time for me to get up. Her vocal range is great and includes chirps, meows, purrs, growls, and hisses. Cats can make a hundred sounds. (Cat Info: We Love Cats and Kittens, “163 Cat Facts That Will Blow Your Mind,” Laraib Shah, February 24, 2023)
I chase Clarabelle in play, and she will run under the bed, but leave her back third and tail out so I will know where to find her. We play a kind of King of the Mountain on the stairs. She will be at the top while I stay at the bottom, and I won’t let her come down, or I pretend to let her, but I hide around the corner. CB will clamber down a few steps and then dash back up when I reappear. On one occasion Clarabelle was having such fun she arched her back and jumped up and down. She often arches her back in fun.
Most of the time, C.B. wants to be independent. She is on patrol in the morning—territory must be carefully scrutinized—except at breakfast time. Clarabelle tends to graze. At night, she jumps on my lap and soon falls fast asleep.
Clarabelle’s Specifications
Height: About 10 inches
Weight: 7-8 pounds (females weigh less than the bigger males)
Life expectancy: Around 20 years
Speed: 30 MPH
Hearing: Clarabelle’s hearing is in the range of bats and beyond that of most people. It measures as high as 60,000 hertz, while humans fade out at 20,000 HZ. (Howard Luxton, The Noble Cat, p.37, 1990).
C.B.’s sense of smell is 9-16 times as strong as humans. She has 45 to 200 million odor-sensitive cells in her nose. Humans only have 10 million. (Wikipedia)
Eyesight: Clarabelle’s visual acuity is somewhere between 20/100 to 20/200. At 6 meters, she can see what a human can see at 20 to 30 meters. C.B. has a high number of photoreceptor cells in her retinas, and these are sensitive to dim light. She also has a tapetum lucidum, which lies immediately behind her retina. It reflects light back through the retina, making it more available to the rod cells. Thus Clarabelle needs 1/6 the light a human needs to see in the dark. (Ibid)
Clarabelle’s reaction time is approximately 20-70 milliseconds. The average snake’s reaction time is 44-70 milliseconds. (Ibid)
Having an animal friend is therapeutic. One feels loved and needed, and the world is viewed in a kinder light.
____________
* Emily Dickinson was a Sagittarius with a Libra Moon and Scorpio rising. Jupiter conjoins Neptune in Capricorn. She reportedly only wore white, was a recluse, and probably had an idiosyncratic/ sensitive personality style.