Eve the Cat - A Fable

Ah…the good life. Eve had it, and she knew it.

Eve’s day followed a particular pattern. It was a pattern finely crafted from her own genius and according to her own whims. She’d discovered after a while what worked best for her and in what order, and thus established her schedule and held to it, except of course on days when she felt like doing something different.

She’d begin by stretching from her spot either at the foot of the human's bed or, if she could manage it, between the human’s legs. If she’d been able to snag this delectably cozy spot at some point during the night, it was certain to be a good day. First, the human wouldn’t be able to move for the rest of the evening save for an occasional trip to the room with the running water. At these moments, she’d simply move to where his head had been resting. This didn’t last particularly long, but it was a small victory. Second, if he went from the running water room to the room with the special food, she could stay in his space for an extra hour or two. Either way, she was happy.

After stretching, Eve would trek up the human’s body, making small whines to let him know she was coming. Once positioned upon his chest, she would either knead his shoulders, taking extra special care to jab her paws into his skin, or to lick his cheek with sandpapery gusto. Sometimes she’d be thrown off the bed, so she’d have to go through all the work of jumping back up and starting the process all over again. At other times, he’d become so annoyed that he’d go to the running water room and return. However, if it was near time for him to be up for the day, he’d fulfill her desire: the empty food dishes would be refilled.

The rest of Eve’s day after this morning breakfast was variations on a theme: return to the human’s abandoned spot, follow him into the special food room hoping for the special food to be produced, jump onto her other favorite nesting place on the back of the couch, hunker down on the human’s lap for a good scratch on the belly or head, a romp with one of those isolent yellow mice silently taunting her in the living room.

She usually found time to do all these things several times over during an average day. In fact, she pretty well required it and, as noted, it was subject to change depending on her mood. Perhaps her morning stretch would be for a scratch instead of food. She tended to decide in the moment, and she liked it that way.

This was the life of Eve. It was a life she loved, a good life. A life where all her fondest desires were met, if not after a little poking of the human.

She liked her human, too. He was good about keeping up with what she required of him. The only complaint that she really had was about the frequent fake-outs in the special food room. She didn’t get the special food nearly as often as she wished, no matter how much of a fuss she put up. There was also the issue of being thrown off the bed sometimes. Aside from that, however, he was very attentive. She enjoyed what he did for her, and it allowed her to go about her day in peace.

That’s why she thought it was so strange the first time that her bowl went the whole day without being filled. He was around; she’d seen him come through the door. He barely noticed her, even when she walked directly in front of his feet. He merely uttered a few human things she didn’t understand before sitting down at the brightly lit box and tapped on the fingertap thing. Even her usual attempts at jumping on his lap and licking him didn’t seem to produce results. And he sat there tapping for what seemed like HOURS.

It was a little perplexing, but much more irritating. She was hungry, after all! He was supposed to give her her food! Where was her food?! Becoming angry, Eve silently skulked off and fell asleep on her couch. It wasn’t until later that evening when she heard the food falling into her bowl. He better not make a habit of that.

The second time that it happened, the human sat on her couch instead of the bed. This time, there was water coming out of his eyes and even her best efforts at getting him up to move toward the food dish was met with some half-hearted scratching and then nothing. She decided not to make a big deal out of it this time, figuring that maybe he needed a nap like the ones she took on the back cushion.

Something like this kept happening every couple days, and Eve began to wonder about the human. It was not like him to seem so distracted from what she wanted. He would sit on the couch with water coming out of his eyes, or he would hold the small talking box to his ear, or he would tap on the fingertap thing. And there were times when he seemed to just like staring into space. It was like what she did, except he never seemed to want to sleep. He would seem angry about something, or distracted, or sad.

That’s when Eve wondered whether the human wanted things, too. Maybe figuring out what he wanted would help, and help her as well.

Eve knew where the human’s food was, but she was not nearly strong enough to open the big white door.

Eve knew where the human got his water to drink, but she couldn’t figure out how to get it to come out.

Eve tried to warm up his spot in the bed, but she'd just end up falling asleep herself.

Already, Eve was out of ideas. What else was there to life besides food and a delectably cozy place to nap?

Eve wondered about this for quite a while. She wondered about it while she ate, she wondered about it before drifting off to sleep, she even wondered about it while she batted around the insolent yellow mouse. But she couldn’t come up with what her human really wanted.

Finally one night, the human once again sat on the couch. Eve sat at his feet, watching as the first traces of water appeared in his eyes. The only thing that she could think of doing was to jump up in his lap, turn around, and lie down.

She braced herself to be thrown off, but nothing happened. Stealing a glance up at the human, she saw him looking down at her, a slight smile appearing on his face. And then, the human’s hand gently made its way from her head to her tail, over and over again.

The two sat in silence for a while, the human continuing to run his hand down her back. Eve noticed that the water in the human’s eyes stopped, as they instead watched her. Eve guessed that her jumping up had probably helped stop the water, and maybe had been the human’s secret need.

Eve went ahead and put her head down, content to feel the human’s hand down her back, content to know that it helped him. She drifted off to sleep, and after a while, the human laid his head back and drifted off to sleep, too.