My great-aunt Pyewacket - the first feminist and a sterling role model.

A role model for human feminism

I was half cat-napping and half dreaming the other afternoon and my beloved great aunt Pyewacket tripped through my cat thoughts.

Which got me to thinking about her and her fabled, ground-breaking life.

She was a beautiful calico that became the first advocate and fighter for woman’s rights, feline or human.

She was independent, not really depending on anybody or anything that she needed or wanted.

I first discovered her sense of adventure and strength of character thru tales told to me by my man-servant, Nick.

Apparently she would disappear for a couple of hours every afternoon and was reportedly seen by many family friends strolling down a shopping street in their neighborhood - peering into store windows. She had a particular affinity for convenience stores.

Nick’s family thought little of it, as she had always been extremely independent and strong-willed.

For example, one Christmas Nick’s little sister got a “Barbie Four Poster Bed” to add to her Barbie collection. Pyewacket decided she liked it and took it over as her own personal sleep/nap location. Poor Barbie never spent a night in the bed.

Many was the time Nick would spot her peering into a store window, scoop her up and bring her home. This did nothing to deter the window shopping and the family thought only about the danger of her being run over.

After a few months of this, the family gave up on searching for her and dragging her home growling and hissing every single day.

Until one day when she arrived at our house carrying a bag of chips - BBQ flavor. The family was horrified - had some sympathetic store owner given her a treat or was she shop-lifting? Or worse still, had she stolen the chips from some poor little school child.

Nick decided to investigate and visited a number of stores along the street speaking with the owners.

“Oh - Kitty - yeah she visits quite often, coming into the store and grabbing a treat or two and leaving. At first we tried to take the merchandise away from her, but this just resulted in a lot of hissing, growling, scratching and a few trips to the hospital for stitches for staff members.

“We decided it was just easier and healthier to let het take what she wants. She especially likes the meat counter and will paw at whatever it was she wanted. We gave it to her.

“Turns out she is a real attraction to many shoppers who come into the store hoping she would be there. Her presence boosted our sales by 20 percent.”

Nick felt a little relieved and started keeping a closer eye on her.

He discovered that she was effectively a woman’s rights advocate.

He witnessed many a tomcat being shunned, physically harmed and sent fleeing her wrath. If she was going to take a lover and bring kittens into her life, she was the one to decide with whom to mate.

As far as I know she all but castrated an awful lot of suitors. Word got around and she was seldom bothered by randy toms after that.

She may very well have been the originator of the “Just Say No” movement.

Nick’s dad thought maybe it was time to get her spayed. It did not turn out well - for my father or the vet. After an hour or so of combat to give her an anesthetic, the vet gave up.

“It’s up to her. If she doesn’t want to be fixed - it’s her decision.”

Too bad right wing politicians don’t have this wisdom and discretion.

I really wonder what Pyewacket would think of today’s male legislators determining a woman’s reproductive rights.

#AdoptDontShop #SlavaUkraini #HeroyamSlava

#NeverMetAnAnimalIDidNotLikeExceptThatBigMeanOrangeCatAtTheEndOfTheBlock