Window Shopping

Mommy sometimes talks of something her family did when she was a kitten (or child, as Purrsons choose to call their offspring). Namely window shopping.

Aby boy sitting at the window

She tried to explain this to her god-children. Being a god-parent means that the Purrson who is such a thing, is allowed to carry the child of a friend off from trouble by the neck, until they are adults.  And teach them the morals of being a Purrson. The parents give them this right in a formal ceremony. A wise tradition in my opinion.

But anyway. When she mentioned they went window-shopping, the children asked did she not have a Mac, and what would she need Windows for.

She had to elaborate: window shopping happened when there were no shopping centers or malls. Shops were spread along the city streets, each showing their merchandise in the shop window.

The shops were not open all through the weekend when she was young. (Upon hearing this I heard the god-children mumble something about Medieval times. Not sure what that is, have to find out about it later.) They closed in the early afternoon on Saturday and did not open until the next Monday. There wasn’t much on the picture box (or TV as Mommy calls it), as they only had two channels. (The god-children extended their mumbling to dinosaurs, which I understood from the context to have existed before the Medieval times).  Also, they had no computers. (The god-children no longer found words). So, they all hopped into the family car (or rubber-paws, as we call it) and drove to the center of the city.

There they just walked the streets, looking at the displays at the shop windows. Clothes and electronics mostly. I never remember Mommy mentioning a grocery store, odd as it is… And then they returned home, dreaming about the things they would like to have one day.

You know what? We do the very same thing! Yes, us, the cats. We sit at the window of the house, and we window-shop the birds and squirrels outdoors. We have nicknamed the birds as flying meatballs, and the squirrels as fluffy-tailed rats. Both very yummy, I am sure. But alas – just like Mommy as a kitten, we cannot get what we are looking at through the window. But we dream…  And swear aloud in kitty language to the delicacies outside for being out of our reach. It is good the human’s don’t understand the language…

Though I am not without merit in this issue… I have actually caught a bird. Twice. Daddy opened the door to the balcony without noticing there was a bird inside. And it could not escape because of the chicken wire fencing they had put there. (Thank you!) If Daddy was half asleep when he opened the door, he was not after the five seconds it took me to catch the birds. Nor was the rest of the house. Amazing how much noise falling furniture can make.

But anyways – we have found similar behavior in Purrsons and cats. I shall keep on researching, maybe we find something more!

Space Witches series

The Seven Shabtis series

The Creature Wars series

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