Till the Fat Lady Sings

Today has been a bit of a laid back day for me. Yesterday I wrote a midterm that took three hours and the week before that I had been studying and preparing to other exams-so I figured that after practice I deserved bit of chill out time. So, I have not been productive-well, I did have a good practice this morning. That is besides the point. The point of my story is that I like to sing. I often don't do it because I live with two other people, but whenever I am in the mood and the house is empty, I will sing. Sometimes I crank up the stereo and sing along with a favourite artist or sometimes I just sing alone. And that is what I did today.
I was in the kitchen stirring milk and sugar into my coffee when the mood to sing suddenly struck me. No one was home, so I just started singing whatever came to mind. There was a mishmash of everything from Phantom of the Opera, Ani Defranco to Christmas carols. While I was belting it out, Sisu came into the kitchen rather disgruntled. She started meowing loudly at me. I stopped singing and her insistent meowing stopped. I started singing again and the meowing began. I've seen her do this before. A few years ago I took voice lessons for six months, but quit after I realised I could not balance school, swimming and music lessons. Whenever I was practising during those six months, Sisu would come into my room and weave in and out of my legs, rubbing herself against me and meowed. I learned to ignore it. There were even a few occasions when she hopped into my lap and pressed her mouth against mine. I'm not sure what it is about me singing, but it makes her crazy-she almost becomes carnal.
So, today when I was singing and she was meowing at me, it seemed like no big deal. But what shocked me was that Loki soon came in and started winding through my legs purring. I had never seen him react to my singing before, so I bent down to see what he was doing. That is how I found out he was purring. I laid my hand on him and he crouched low to the ground purring and staring up at me-all the while I kept singing. I began to sing in higher octaves to see if it made a difference and the cats went even crazier. Sisu ran in circles around me and kept putting her paws on my legs, trying to climb into my lap. I had my hand resting on the floor because I was balancing on my toes and needed the support. All of a sudden, after one particular loud meow, someone-and I say someone because I don't know who it was-bit me! They walked over and placed their teeth on the back of my hand and held it in their mouth until I said quite loudly, "hey, no biting!" Then they both sunk low to the ground and stared up at me. It was the strangest thing I have ever seen them do-ok, maybe not the strangest, but one of them. I scooped Sisu up off the floor and held her and she seemed to return to the cat that I know. The primalness had gone. She just leaned into me and insisted that I rub her ears. Neither of my cats have ever bit me. I don't know what it is about the singing that resonates with them, but when I sing they become "wild" cats. Even when I put CD's of certain artists on, Sisu circles the living room meowing. I don't know if they like it, or if they don't...but maybe they do because they don't run away and hide. My voice instructor once told me that singing creates noises that resonates in the cats' ears and makes them happy; especially the high ones. I believed her until my cat bit me today. lol Then again, it wasn't exactly like a bite-it was like they were holding me in their teeth. Maybe they thought I was a mouse making high pitched noises? Either way, I am locking myself in my room from now when I sing because apparently even my cats don't want to hear it. :)