Kyle Gebhart

There is a thoughtful (if i do say so myself) series coming on what it means to be ‘in the club.’ Ask Jared about the club. He’ll know what your talking about – and if he doesn’t tell him I told you to ask. And if not then, well, tell him we talked about it at the House of Pancakes one day.

there’s just something about a man who loves a cat.

my dad is a cat person – really my whole family – we owned one dog growing up (a rather sad little terrier named maggie who obsessively licked ‘hot spots’ on her butt until they were raw). we owned between twelve and fifteen cats. I can’t even remember their names, but this isn’t about all of our cats growing up – its about a man.

seeing a man enjoy and care for a cat reveals much about their nature. it is not the sort of thing that happens in public. this is because cats (all creatures in fact) respond positively to kindness and gentleness. these traits are in short abundance on the earth.

seeing my father, for example, care for little tiggy (one of the best loved and eldest of our house cats over the years) gives me a window into his desire to serve and love. when tiggy was put to sleep several months ago, he lost a faithful friend. the reason he had a faithful friend was simple: he earned the friendship by serving the creature.

i’ve often heard people describe their distaste for cats. i respect that. some like pepsi, some like coke, etc. preference is part of what makes us human. people say cats are selfish, uncontrollable, you can’t teach them tricks, they are independant. these are all true statements about cats. what i rarely hear people note is that each of these traits (except maybe teaching tricks) is also true of humans.

that’s why a man loving a cat tells me something. it means he’s capable of patiently tending to the needs of a creature that is inconsistant, independant, self-serving, etc. having a cat at home takes character, time, long-suffering, servanthood. i’ll say it again:

there’s just something about a man who loves a cat.