Start From Beginning
Benny the cat has a foot fetish. This is what Dre tells us by way of explaining his odd fascination with our stinky pirate feet. Benny (which is short for Benito Mouse-a-lini) is a long, wiry tuxedo black-and-white tom. He has an extremely affectionate personality; he demands petting frequently and purrs easily. He prefers to be the center of attention, quite literally taking his place in the center of the living room and then making the rounds so that everybody gets a chance to give him the ear scratching and belly rubs he so clearly feels are his due. It is hard not to like a cat with such an un-catlike personality.
Benny is a shelter cat that Dre took in to keep Slim company. Slim is a small black cat with a more standard-issue cat personality. She is extremely reticent about the new people in her house and seems particularly interested in going outside to do Important Cat Things when we are inside, and on going back inside when we are out. She is a huntress and spends much of her day stalking birds and rodents around the yard. She also likes to sit in front of the neighbor's porch so that the dog can see her through the front door, pretending she is unaware of his obvious desperation to get through that glass pane and at her.
She often comes home covered in dirt, or pollen, grass clippings and other unidentifiable substances.
Dre bought this house last fall with money she inherited from her Mother after she died of cancer. She views the house as her first full-on plunge into responsible adulthood and is excited to be building her own nest, if a little overwhelmed at the vast amount of work it entails. She is also understandably ambivalent about the circumstances surrounding its purchase.
She picked up Slim from a shelter when she first moved in to this house by herself, and Benny followed later when friends heard her speculate that Slim might want some company. She jokes about becoming a Crazy Old Cat Lady, one of those women with fifteen cats that she talks to in place of any human contact. And indeed she does converse with her cats as though they were people, and she does leave the radio on when she is at work to keep them from getting lonely. But overall she doesn't seem to be in any greater danger of becoming a Crazy Old Cat Lady than any of the other half-dozen 30-ish women I know who I've heard expressing this same anxiety.
Is the Crazy Old Cat Lady the modern version of what used to be called an Old Maid? I've heard this from so many different women that I can only conclude that the fear of turning into the town's eccentric spinster is alive and well in even the most liberated of women.
Go figure.
Benny and Slim generally get along well, but our presence seems to have sparked some rivalry between them as the much larger Benny bullies Slim out of the way if he feels that she is stealing his spotlight. Our first night here a minor brawl breaks out between them which is broken up with a flung sandal. When it settles down Benny takes his place at the foot of the bed for the night. He purrs as he falls asleep.