This is why we don't normally take cats to mass

Jun 14, 2020 17:11

I'm Catholic (Cat-holic, yes, I've gotten that several times). I've been participating in mass via live stream even though my church has mass again with limited capacity because I think it's safer for everyone if I stay home. My church uses Facebook Live; I use Apple Play to put it up on the tv.

Of course, this has meant cat involvement. Before Doofus got too sick, he would sit on the couch. He was a very respectful cat.

Phantom has never been a respectful cat. I have occasionally shut her in another room to get through mass unmolested. Today, she wasn't too bad. She spent the Liturgy of the Word (the first half, with the readings) in another room. She came to the family room and then sometimes settled on the coffee table looking right at the priest, maybe because he was wearing white robes with a broad red stripe down the front. She did get in my lap briefly during the preparation hymn, despite my efforts to use the hymnal to ward her off.

But Catholics sit and kneel a lot in that second half of mass, so I mostly didn't have to worry about her getting in my lap. I was not expecting that she'd suddenly flop onto her back on the coffee table for a belly rub, and I was certainly not expecting that she'd do it at the very edge, fall off the coffee table, and leave a five-inch-long scratch on my leg as she flailed to try to stop herself!

Of course she failed and hit the floor on her back. She gave me the "I meant to do that!" look and jumped right back on the coffee table, apparently unhurt by the impact, while I was the one who yowled.

Fortunately, God and science gave us Lansinoh: prepared lanolin. It's marketed for breastfeeding mothers, but the stuff is magic for scratches. Lion tamers used to use lanolin on their scratches from lions. That finally stopped the pain.

St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us. crossposted at Dreamwidth; comments welcome on either!

cats, my life

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