Sunday, August 12, 2018

The Seventeen-Year-Old Cat

     The Mouse-Baby Song has been sung, long, low-pitched and mournful, sung holding the stuffed toy in one's mouth, of course.  It must be so; it is the only way to be sure the Great Cat will hear, and bring the prey near our waiting-place. The Mouse-Baby Song has been sung, and the mouse-baby itself deposited dead-center in a doorway, as is required.

    The ceremony is complete.  Good eating is assured for one more day, despite the blithe, utter unconcern of the monkey-Mommies with the proper rituals as they sit there, staring at the box that make flat pictures that smell only of dust.  They're so unaware of the things that matter!

13 comments:

  1. Lol!! Mouse baby must also be carried about the house, while singing, in order to ensure that the monkeys come back into the house should they have ventured outside to get paper from the box by the road...
    It can't be comfortable to try to meow while holding a stuffed (neon orange) mouse, surely?

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  2. Good song. Does remind us that there are three essentials and rest is just window dressing.

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  3. The age old tradition of the mouse baby song. The absence of which invites canine interlopers to the sacred couches. When times are particularly troublesome, the feline chitter-ward must be performed at each window of the domicile.

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  4. My daughter had 2 cats, aged 18 and 16. The older one, Griffin, named after the Grand Rapids minor league hockey team, died this past spring. Her other one, Tikki, is still going strong.
    My son and his wife have dogs. They brought 3 of them to Michigan from California. Two were aged 18, and one, only 7. The oldest one, Otis, named after the drunk from the Andy Griffith show, died this past winter. The second one, Roxy, a min pin, is not doing well, and likely to pass within the next several weeks. Their last one, Carlos, is doing great, but he is a goofball. All were small stature dogs.
    My wife and I, over 25 years, have had 3 dogs that we had to put to sleep, due to health issues, when I could not let them suffer. It is always a tough thing, having to lose a member of the family, which pets are, no matter what some might say. I feel your sadness, and hope that your cat is able to recover, if not for the long term, at least for awhile.

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  5. "When times are particularly troublesome, the feline chitter-ward must be performed at each window of the domicile."

    It is known. *nods*

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  6. Pigpen51: Rannie is doing well. She sings the mouse-baby song about once a day. When Tam was first recovering from a broken collarbone, the cat brought her multiple mouse-babies, presumably to help her heal.

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  7. You are so perceptive when you try.

    Please think and write more.

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  8. Roberta X,

    Rannie must be part EMT. Emergency Medi-Cat Technician. And was Tam supposed to ingest the remedy delivered, or merely apply externally? lol. Animals are truly one of the joys of life. Plus 1911's. I just ordered parts for mine, so I must love it.

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  9. You do have a gift for writing. I do not, hence this boring post. :(

    P. S

    I hope your knees are better.

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  10. Pigpen51: I'm not sure, though the cat herself will often gather mouse-babies together and sleep in their midst, so perhaps she thought it would help Tam to do the same.

    Thanks to all of you for the kind comments.

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  11. One night as I was sitting in bed reading, I heard my Blu (white cat, blue eyes, deaf as a post) coming down the hall, yowling with something in his mouth. Not unusual - he did that with his favorite toy all the time. As he came around the corner, it started to register that he wasn't carrying his toy, but rather a mouse. Before I could do anything he jumped up on the bed, and, finding troublesome to yowl with his mouth full, put the mouse down. It was't dead. And it bolted across the bed, with Blu and Blackberry, who had been snoozing next to me, in hot pursuit. Followed by me until I realized that I couldn't catch the thing. Later, I wished those few moments had been videoed for "America's Funniest Home Videos."

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