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FeedMonday, May 19, 2008
Marmot on Monday: Cat-ventures
By Amy McMasters
Springfield blogger Amy McMasters is, among other things, web mistress of The Snarling Marmot blog. She sometimes refers to herself in the third person. Marmot on Mondays, her soon-to-be-famous weekly take on the lighter side of life in 417-land, is special to the 417 Blog. If you like what you read, please visit her website.It’s said you need a sense of humor to have a cat. Stock in Neosporin doesn't hurt, either. One day recently I was bored and hanging around, at loose ends during the last week of my unfortunate unemployment vacation. I griped to Jody that I’d run out of things to do.
“So go visit the kitty bumps,” she told me.
The kitty bumps would be Jody’s 32 pounds of feline fun named Captain and Tenille. For those keeping score, Captain and Tenille are both male.
La Marmot has a cat, a small, unassuming, five-pound cat. In fact, as long as I can remember I’ve always had a cat. So Jody’s idea was, on paper, a good one. I could go visit her cats and give them attention while entertaining my bored, rodent behind. What could possibly go wrong?
Yeah. Rodents and cats go so well together, no?
I made my way over to Jody’s and was greeted by much caterwauling. Captain and Tenille were hungry and obviously in dire need of petting.
Oh the felinity.
So I fed, watered and petted. They were neither one impressed with my rendition of “Muskrat Love.”
When I felt like I’d spent enough time attending to the kitty bumps, I made for the front door… and so did Captain. For such a rotund fellow, he’s wily and fast. As soon as I got the front door open, he made a break for it. Once outside, he camped himself deep inside a very prickly bush.
The Captain and Tenille are not outside cats. I knew it was imperative I get the furry bowling ball back in the house quickly. Stout as he is, he’s no match for a car and Jody lives on a busy street.
I called to him.
He meowed.
I got to the edge of the bush and made the “Here kitty, kitty,” plea.
He turned his back on me.
I stuck a hand in the bush, he meowed loud enough to get the attention of one of the other neighborhood Tom cats. Random Gray Cat came loping into the yard and right into Captain’s bush.
Captain began caterwauling and hissing at a fever pitch. Knowing it would likely be to my detriment, I stepped in between them. Random Gray Cat made a half-hearted swipe at me and the Captain and then took off running. I took advantage of Captain’s distraction to scoop him up.
Scoop him up is the wrong phrase. More accurately what occurred was a human/feline wrasslin’ match.
When I got him in the house, he stalked off to a corner to sulk. Tenille, who up to this point, had been at the screen door alternately yowling at both of us for being outside and attempting to rip off the door’s screen, twitched his tail in disgust and stalked off to the litter box.
I collapsed on the couch to catch my breath, thanking my lucky stars I’d some how managed to avoid needing Neosporin. After a few minutes of intense staring and grooming, Captain meandered over to the couch. He hopped in my lap, settled in and began to purr. I gathered I’d been forgiven when the purring switched to loud kitty snores.
Oh the felinity, indeed.
—XOXO, Marmot
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Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 | Permalink
