Meow Meow the Cat

Not far from where I live is this barn cat, the friendliest barn cat you’ve ever met. My wife and I frequently encounter him when we walk into town. Although he’s a little on the skittish side, he often comes running up to the fence, rubs it, and lets off short little squeak-like meows.

Sometimes he rolls around in the dirt as we speak to him. He doesn’t care about getting a little dirty. After a few more rubs on the wire fence, he sometimes gets bored with us and wanders back into the barn if we don’t take leave of him first.

Not knowing his name or even whether he was a he or a she, we took to calling him Meow Meow.

Remember Henrietta the Pussycat from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood? On the show, Henrietta says “meow meow this” and “meow meow that” just like the Meow Meow barn cat we know. According to misterrogers.org, Henrietta has a “sweet shy nature” which perfectly matches Meow Meow’s personality.

And just like the occasional disagreements that Henrietta had with her neighbor, X the Owl, Meow Meow has a forgiving side. Even when I unintentionally startle and scare off Meow Meow—one time when I took a picture of him with my Nikon F, the sound of the shutter’s clack-clack suddenly sent him running into the barn—he never seems to remember the next time.

The other day I was visiting with Meow Meow when he suddenly lost interest in me and walked off. I looked around and saw a woman who was standing on her porch next door scooping out some cat food from an open can. Well, I remember thinking to myself, that explains how Meow Meow gets along.

My curiosity getting the best of me, I wandered over and asked the woman what she knew about him. He is indeed a he, she said, his name is Valentine, and he belongs to her. When they moved in to the house a few years ago, he decided that the barn was his place to be. I mentioned that I had always thought he went with the barn and that he had been there with a job to do all along. We chatted a bit more, and I thanked her for shedding light on what has been a persistent mystery.

So it seems his name is Valentine. He’ll always be Meow Meow to us.