Further Conversations With A Cat
By Contributing Author/Artist Carl Franz
Illustration of Jaz Cat by Emma Franz

Usually Jaz bounced down the stairs drumming her intrepid descent throughout the house with her oversized wallaby hind feet. However on this occasion my sly little she-cat deftly tiptoed on her delicate pink pads all the way down the somewhat worse for wear stair carpet in a new silent and exceptionally stealthy manner. This cunning ploy was designed for one and only one single purpose, which was to convey the nine month old feline predator, affectionately known as Jaz Cat, to the closest possible proximity of her unwitting prey, which happened to be me.

She closed in on my helpless form as I stood alone and defenceless in the kitchen doing the washing up. The unguarded door stood wide open, inviting the inevitable blood-curdling conclusion to the hunt. I was clearly a doomed man. 

Who would have thought the starving little kitten I found on my own doorstep would become such a ruthless man-eater? 

After my old friend Scarab passed away, I decided not to look for another cat, and then barely three months later, glancing out of the window, there she was. A painfully skinny kitten with huge out of proportion ears and (only just turned) green eyes, staring fearfully back up at me.

She fled as soon as she heard me fumble with the door, so I put out some food for her and waited.

Within half an hour the desperately hungry little cat was back, gulping it down.

Over the next few days she became more confident and ventured into the house, eventually making herself a comfortable nest inside my cupboard, but she was still very anxious. If I came too close she hissed, exposing her last few ferocious milk teeth. I didn't want to frighten her by intruding on her safe place, so I fed her nearby and placed a litter tray within easy reach. The clever kitten immediately used it, with only one or two understandable near-misses.

Gradually, over the next few days, Jaz (as I called her) became accustomed to me moving around the house and ventured out from her den a little way. Watching her I could see she was not just scared but also in pain. I wasn't sure what it was but there was definitely something very wrong with her. I took her to the vets for a check up. She didn't go without a fight, but it turned out to be a wise decision. Poor Jaz urgently needed medical intervention in the form of an operation. Thankfully the treatment was successful and within a couple of weeks I managed to win her trust to the point where she allowed me to hand feed her. From then on things became much easier between us and she quickly grew into a very affectionate and playful little cat.

Her trust in me allowed me the opportunity to directly employ healing universal energy on her, hands-on. Cats love it! It is as natural to them as purring, which incidentally is, I believe, a healing vibration.

The first session commenced one evening while she was conveniently curled up on my lap. I felt the familiar humming sensation building in my hands. It was the universal energy reaching out towards little Jaz. I breathed in, drawing up energy from the earth through my feet, all the way up to my seventh chakra, and let it run down again into my arms as I exhaled. My hands felt as if they were inflating into baseball gloves with the energy and began to heat up.

Unfortunately this was far too hot for Jaz. I gently removed one hand, at the same time reducing the energy flow as far as I could, but this was still far too much for her. She was becoming restless and would leave if I continued. What to do? I decided to try something new. The energy was still flowing up my body and then returning down from just above my crown chakra. As it tipped down from this highest point of the flow I curved it out and down over the front of my body. This took it through Jaz laying on my lap. From there it returned to me. Soon I had an easy circular current flowing around from my base chakra up to my crown, then out and down in an arc through the purring little cat and back into me again.

I noticed my base chakra was heating up from this and with my third eye it looked to be a glowing red ruby. From then on this bowed-out flow of energy became my modus operandi for healing my sweet Jaz Cat and she obviously enjoyed it.

The Reiki bonded us even closer and I began to sense more of her thoughts and impressions. It became far easier to sense her mood and sometimes, if she was really hungry, she sent me a short movie by way of cat telepathy, showing me a rather disappointing close-up of her empty dish.

One day she was laying nearby on the sofa, twitching her white sock paws as she dreamed. It always amused me to see that, but then she began to work her jaw as if she was also eating in her sleep. I found this both hilarious and intriguing. What delicious delicacy could she be consuming?

Spontaneously I zoomed in on her with my third eye. For the first time I saw her dream through her own dreaming eyes. I naïvely expected to get a view of her dry food treats but I should have known better. (Vegetarians please look away now). The neatly chopped flesh was a very bright red colour and gleamed with a slimy coating of juice. I could almost taste it. Yuk!

Despite this exceedingly unappetising encounter I was quite pleased with myself for having shared something so intimate with Jaz Cat. We had certainly come a long way since her timid arrival.

So when my little hunter Jaz sneaked down to the bottom of the stairs, all tiger-eyed and sassy with her ears pointing forward, ready to pounce, she came face-to-face with me, all too well aware of her devious plan! Astonished, she recoiled on her pogo spring legs straight up into the air and raced back up the stairs with her tail hooped over like a skipping rope. However at the top she composed herself and turned, dropping into a crouch ready to take me on again.

“Catch me if you can!” flashed her glittering green eyes.

About the Author:
Author and artist Carl Franz lives in Yorkshire, UK.
He regularly contributes to his local magazine 'Howden Matters' and also features in various websites and magazines.