The Cat Does Not Care For Portuguese

105 Replies

Both Teresa (my Portuguese teacher) and I had been away on alternating holiday schedules over the summer, and today was my first lesson in what felt like ages. I was all set for getting back into the swing of things – I’d even done my homework! – but little did I know that my enthusiasm would be met with considerable feline opposition.

Teresa had only just got back yesterday from a two-week stint in Portugal, and despite having arranged for a relative to tend to her cat, Otto, the poor darling had clearly suffered severe psychological damage from the prolonged lack of attention. And he was determined to make up for it.

Otto is usually quite reticent and prefers to watch proceedings from his chair in the window, which made today’s antics all the more amusing.

Otto on book

“That book’s out of action. And if you want the computer, I shall sit on that!”

Otto close up

“We are so NOT doing verbs now.”

Otto tail

“If you insist on talking to each other instead of to me, I’ll just have to feed you a tailful of cat hair.”

I expect that, by next Monday, he’ll be back to his aloof old self. Shame 😉

 

105 thoughts on “The Cat Does Not Care For Portuguese”

      5. ladyofthecakes Post author

        I’d never thought about it in that way, but I think you may be onto something there. I suspect that people who like both are just animal lovers, while those who are strictly-dogs-only people have a type of narcissistic personality disorder – if it doesn’t wholeheartedly and unreservedly adore them, they don’t want to know 😉

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      6. con jamón spain

        That’s it! Dog-only people are normally…you know,,a bit annoying – looking down on you a bit: ‘how can you like that fluffy ball of fur when MY pet talks to me and does everything say – like my wife/husband!’

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  3. somewonderland

    ah, that’s the ultimate The Unadulterated Cat 🙂 Some good old ear scratching is in order to make the beast purr instead of roar I reckon. Or next time some one should bring a cat’s version of pie to smooth things out

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    1. ladyofthecakes Post author

      I’m flagging badly, I must admit. But the lessons renew my enthusiasm. I hate grammar exercises almost as much as dental surgery, but it’s got to be done in order to get to the satisfying part. If only it wasn’t such a long stretch…

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  10. heatherinde

    I don’t know if cats are evil, but they are freakin’ weirdos, that’s for damn sure. Ours was all over BV’s study station on the kitchen table the last couple of weeks. We can read, or be on the computer, or anything else and she doesn’t give a damn, but as soon as he has to get serious about the studying, she’s laying all over his books.

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      1. heatherinde

        Very true. And since she’s not usually one for getting cuddly, we try to find it cute rather than annoying. At 3am when she’s purring and kneading on my pillow, it becomes challenging.

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  11. joannesisco

    Cats are not evil.
    Now that I’ve made that clear, I love, love, love the 2nd picture. I might have snorted when I saw it 😀
    What a cutie! I get the same treatment from Theo when he thinks he’s been ‘neglected’.

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  13. adamf2011

    Well, clearly Otto missed Teresa and wasn’t willing to share her with you after her return. Maybe next time she should take the cat with her on her travels — maybe Otto will even pick up some Portuguese… 🙂

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      8. ladyofthecakes Post author

        I’ve also realised that I’m going to need at least another lifetime to do what I had planned… unfortunately, that game involves wiping the memory banks, which is a bit of a bugger. I’m going to have to put in an application with The Big Man to give me a better start next time (i.e. at least a trilingual upbringing), I need to hit the ground running 😉

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      10. ladyofthecakes Post author

        I meant that by being reborn, you inevitably hit the re-set button and start again from zero. Therefore, may not get any farther in several lifetimes, unless your birth conditions happen to be highly favourable to your “life project” from the very outset. So, if I were re-born to complete the project, I’d need to have a good fiddle with the game settings BEFORE it starts all over again 😉

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      11. adamf2011

        Well…not to be a killjoy, because I myself am totally obsessed by acquiring another language (and wouldn’t mind making it languages), but with languages it’s “game over” at death (if not before — neurological damage due to stroke, trauma, etc). If you want to assume the validity of past/future existences…you’d have to wonder about how many languages you’ve been fluent in in the past, and which you now know not even a single syllable of; plus all the languages that no longer even exist….

        Still, it’s a lot of fun, and if I found myself in a situation conducive to picking up yet another language…I would totally go for it! Plus, a never-ending project has its advantages. 😉

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      12. ladyofthecakes Post author

        Well, I’d settle for something like being born into a bilingual household in a country like Belgium or Switzerland, and then take it from there. I was already in my twenties when I became bilingual, when, really, I should have mastered at least four languages in my first two decades of life. Wrong circumstances/family/environment.

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      13. adamf2011

        You could probably do even better than that…some really polyglot place like India or the Balkans, or a border region somewhere. Also, there’s the issue of local dialect. (Cf. the old quip that a language is a dialect with an army). I would count dialects as languages in their own right, especially to the extent that they’re not comprehensible to those who haven’t mastered them. We don’t have that situation in the US — I could go anywhere and pretty much understand anybody — but in Thailand people from one part of the country would have a very low comprehension of dialects from another areas. So I think there are a lot of situations where people end up speaking local dialect(s) plus standard/national language(s) — they’re more polyglot than they’re given credit for, because the local dialects are “low status” and don’t get no respect.

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      14. ladyofthecakes Post author

        A big fat NOOOOOOOO to being born as a woman in India. Goodness, nothing could ever compensate me for that kind of appalling luck. Balkans, ditto – forget it. Not if I have any say in this, anyway. The nice parts of Europe it is for me 🙂

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  14. TheLastWord

    Jenna said: “Because they are EVIL and know I’m allergic, and they take pleasure in torturing me!!!”

    I said: “Cats are evil creatures and will willfully and deliberately crap all over your apartment before disappearing – just to prove a point”

    I certainly am not allowing any cat to wave it’s tail in my face!! shudder!

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    1. ladyofthecakes Post author

      Cats are evil when they come up for a cuddle, and they are evil when they leave poo deposits. There’s no pleasing the cat haters, coz ‘haters are gonna hate’. (Didn’t the great sage Miley Cyrus say that…?)

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  16. pollyheath

    Hahaha, the second picture may need to become my desktop background. I understand the poor cat, though. I’d be mad too if my human abandoned me for several weeks into the care of strange relatives!

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  18. restlessjo

    Cats and dogs always spark lots of comments, don’t they? 🙂 The mention of language lessons always has me feeling guilty. One of these days I’m going to make myself up a timetable. 😦 And stick to it?

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  20. linnetmoss

    Awww, Otto is the sweetest little cuddle-buddy! I have a soft spot for tabbies–and black cats. LOL about the touching reunion with Charlie. Maybe if he came bearing cheesy comestible gifts, he’d get a warmer reception 🙂

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      1. David

        She needs a martini glass and some buelbbs in the sink :)We have a huge collection of photos of our cats doing things which most people would probably consider extremely boring, but for some reason, every time they do it, we just have to take a picture because it’s so cute! 🙂 We’re like those obnoxious parents who always think their children are god’s gift to the world 😀

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