Lilly on train going to Switzerland. Photo by Marc.
Marc loves all cats. Red and Lilly were friends, good friends. I love these friendships. I am jealous because there is a simplicity in their friendship that is enviable.
I hope the video does justice to Marc’s tender relationship with his cats. I wanted a transient, fleeting feel to it because that is the way life is, particularly with regard to our relationship with our cats who live relatively short lives. I won’t go into technical stuff but it was tricky making this straightforward video for all kinds of reasons.
It is short because people like short videos. It is a vignette of cat life and it was a tender time. Despite being short; for me, it is quite intense.
Because of technical difficulties I edited the video almost blind because I couldn’t play the video while I was editing it. This was due to problems with the code that produced the video material of Red on the trampoline (absolutely no criticism of Marc – video code and formats are a nightmare). You’ll see some pixel problems at the end – who cares?
Despite the real difficulties making this video, I think it captures one powerful theme that runs through the life of Marc and his cats: love. A tender appreciation of the beauty of the domestic cat; the domestic cat’s singularity and independence, but at the same time, dependence on us to a certain extent.
There is a conflict in the domestic cat. They are hardly domesticated. There is a miniature tiger roaming around the living room of your home. The domestic cat is far less domesticated than the dog. This is because the relationship between cat and human is a mutually arrangement of equality in many ways. Whereas the relationship between dog and human is symbiotic (dependency through mutual benefit).
You can sense that free spirit in the video of Red, when he runs through the snow. It is his world and we can watch it and admire it, but at that moment we cannot be part of it.
I know this video works because it makes me tearful. Not because it is sad (perhaps a tinge of sadness) but because it shows a purity of life that touches me.
I agree Michael it made me sad but there again anything with such simplistic beauty and innocence always does that to me.
Thank you for making such a beautiful video and Marc for being so utterly devoted to your cats and their happiness.
I completely agree. It is the “simplistic beauty” that makes me sad not the loss of Red or a moment gone for ever. I believe that we are sad at the sight of this sort of beauty because we crave it and so seldom receive it.
Touching and beautiful.
Thank you Marc and Michael.
Thanks Dee. You can feel the love.
Thanks Dee – they loved each other so much and so did I. We were like a little very happy family for a time. I will always treasure those memories.
Funnily enough I just visited Red’s grave this evening. It was dark and the ground all white with snow – totally different to before. I put him in a beautiful place considering where i am living and right where his cat mother and grandmother roam everyday so I don’t feel like I left him alone either. Those are the things that matter – and that I can visit him.
Michael its great – totally nice – although I am at work so no sound but that suits me too 🙂 Red was a bit younger there on his trampoline. He loved the leaves in fall and I would flick them all over the trampoline and stick my hand under the border thingy and grab his little feet before he could get away of thwack the hand monster 🙂 I like that you put lilly on the train and then them together. It tells a story. She needed a couple weeks to calm down after the journey and then she and Red fell totally in love with eachother. They would go together on evening walks (like Marvin and Daisy maybe?) together like a couple, slowly stopping to look at things and then playing and chasing eachother. She’s come home early and he’d stay out. My upstairs neighbour was fascinated with their friendship and would come down to hasng out with them. She would tell me how wonderful she thought they were as a pair and she was very sad when I told her Red died.
It’s a little like a story the movie starting with her journey 🙂 I like it, thank you Michael.
You’ll like the sound. Pleased you like it. I have amended Red’s video.
I think the music improves this video. I hope you watch it with sound.
Beautifully done. And you are right, who cares? It is beautiful. I picture Red taking one of those fallen leaves up to Marc’s pillow as a token of his love.
I can stand for an hour watching Yellow cat groom her beloved Shadow. Never reciprocated, but always appreciated by him I’m sure. How could he not?
As for envying the relationships cats have, it is sort of a live and let live. I see Shadow get grumpy now and then, and he takes it out on Yellow with a swat. She just moves out of reach and waits for him to get a better attitude. Then all is well again. No one argues. It just is what it is.
We could learn from that.
Yes, the bit at the end reminds of Red taking leaves to Marc’s bed and the cat in Italy, Toldo who brought objects to his human companion’s grave.
We can learn from cats! No arguments. Well, less arguments. It seems people are obsessed with arguing in the UK. The most popular TV programmes show people arguing all the time.
Cats are good for us because we can watch them and keep still. Yesterday evening I closed my eyes while Charlie groomed himself. I love that feeling as he rocks against me. It massages my brain. It makes me feel good.
Such beautiful cats and your love of them is obvious Marc.
This reminds me of a saying I heard many years ago, I can’t remember now who wrote it
‘If you can win a cat’s friendship, you have something to boast about’
Beautiful saying Ruth. We do have to earn their trust. I feel they are better than us.