oofa

Years ago when I lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico with my friend - we had a cat that was really special.

His name was oofa. We didn't name him that - he just, in a quiet moment, told me what his name was. He felt it and I heard it and that's what we called him but my impression was that it was okay for us to share the name, so we told other people.

Sometimes cats, according to my experience with them, might if they feel close to you or feel a sense of connection let on what their name is.

I have been trained gradually over time interacting with cats and dogs how to inquire what their name is. I just ask them, usually out loud - would you tell me your name - and I pause and shortly thereafter, if they are comfortable with telling me that name, I will hear the name - not exactly in a voice - it's almost like a whisper or sometimes I see it printed in the air - not physically but with my subtle vision.

I follow that up by asking them - would they like to keep that quiet, just a name between us or would they feel comfortable with other people knowing their name - perhaps the people they live with or something like that and I abide by their answer.

It's a funny thing isn't it - we're all conscious of having our names but we don't really think about the fact that other beings, non-humans, would have names. When you consider it, of course it makes complete sense - why wouldn't they have names.

Anyway, I want to tell a little story about oofa - it's my favorite story.

He had the most wonderful personality. He would always do this special thing if he was going to show me something or teach me something - I've never known a cat with a greater sense of humor.

One day he wanted to go outside and the home we were living in had sliding glass windows. He looked at me which meant to open the window, which I did but before he went out he paused and turned and looked over his shoulder and looked at me for a moment. I knew that was his sign to me to stay there and watch.

He went outside and he went to the end of the property where there was a dog in the next yard. The dog would sometimes have his friends come over and that day that was the case.

Oofa caught their attention on purpose and then ran. He ran down towards a pine tree on our property. I would have been concerned about him but he had caught my attention and he had obviously gone over to catch the attention of the dogs so I knew he was up to something.

Well, he ran around the pine tree in such a way as the dogs were fairly close behind him. He could run fast. I didn't know whether he could run that fast and you know, he ran around that pine tree with the dogs nipping at his heels and then he put on an extra burst of speed and suddenly the next thing I knew was that the dogs were tearing around the pine tree but there was no oofa.

I didn't know where he was. Then the dogs stopped and they looked at each other and they looked for oofa and they couldn't find him. They lingered for a while and then they wandered off to continue on their lives because I'm sure they had something more important to do.

About that time I was beginning to be concerned about oofa - I looked about half way up the pine tree when I saw something rustle.

Sure enough, he poked his head out just a little bit. Apparently he figured out how fast he could go, how fast the dogs could go and how much ahead of them he needed to be in order to make the jump into the pine tree and remain totally hidden.

Well, he stayed in the pine tree for a little while and then after about twenty minutes when the dogs were long gone, he hopped down, walked into the house, sat down and looked at me and I could have sworn he winked at me.

If you've lived with cats long enough you can tell when they're kind of smiling at you and that day, oofa smiled at me.