In the home of Merrie Beth and Ian Samways, cats rule and humans serve.
It's no exaggeration.
In fact, it's the reason that Emelie, their 8-year-old Maine coon brown patch tabby, recently won second place in Cat Fancy magazine's 2006 Most Spoiled Cat Contest.
"Her favorite ritual is a delightful afternoon catnip tea with warm apricot sour-cream scones and some freshly whipped cream," says Merrie Beth's essay on her cat, which was published in the magazine.
"She takes her high tea accompanied by my rendition of Bach's Goldberg Variations on the piano, after which she requires my warm lap for her beauty rest. If the doorbell or telephone rings, I ignore it — lest it interrupt her nap."
Several times a week, Emelie is hand-fed thinly sliced wild salmon and other fish. The baking mix for the apricot scones is mail-ordered from Vermont "with Emelie in mind." She's permitted to sleep in baskets of fresh-out-of-the-dryer laundry. And she has premium indoor bird-watching accommodations — floor pillows and a view of four outdoor bird feeders.
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Merrie Beth bakes Emelie a tuna catnip birthday cake every Dec. 28. (It's a modified fish loaf recipe for people, using cat-friendly ingredients.) It's topped with a birthday candle and a picture of Bastet, the Egyptian goddess of cats, affixed to a wooden stick.
"We blow the candle out, and Emelie digs in," she said.
Also, if Emelie is sleeping in Ian's favorite chair, the man of the house will sit elsewhere. During organ practice sessions, Merrie Beth, a former church organist, will sacrifice her need to be centered over the pedals if Emelie wants bench space. The couple's morning bathroom routine is often delayed because Emelie likes batting running water from the faucet. And vacations are taken only if someone can cat-sit.
Merrie Beth, a 38-year-old freelance writer, hates the term "spoiled." She said "creatively pampered" more accurately describes her 17-pound, golden-green-eyed phat cat.
"Emelie has her moods, but I wouldn't say she's bratty or arrogant," Merrie Beth said. "She's not demanding. She makes her wishes known, but she does it in a polite way."
The nationwide contest drew more than 200 entries before its July 1 deadline. Entrants competed for three top spots.
"The three (entries) that I chose for the magazine stood out for me as being really unique and different," Editor Susan Logan said in a telephone interview.
"Cat Fancy likes to see people spoil their cats, but it seemed like these went beyond spoiled, she added."
The first-place winner was KitKat of Demotte, Ind. According to his owner's essay, if KitKat is resting on a family member's lap in a room with no TV remote, a tap on the wall summons another family member to change the channel so KitKat is not disturbed. That — and the fact that when KitKat gets up in the middle of the night, a family member escorts him to his feeding station with a flashlight beam — bowled over the editorial staff, Logan said.
"We actually had a chuckle over that, too, given that cats have night vision," Merrie Beth said.
