behindtheax

the cat

The tree is gone. Decorations are back in their cardboard boxes. The bucket load of balsam needles, which were abandoned by the tree as it was dragged down the hallway and out the front door, were swept up leaving little to no trace of Christmas behind. The rain came and washed away the white, leaving a mild damp day that seemed very unwinter like. Both girls returned to school. Greg returned to work. I spent the day hanging out with the cat. She even followed me to the grocery store. I didn’t know she was but a block from home I saw a flash of tortoiseshell run across the lawn beside me. She is so dog like but not too dog like. She always keeps a fair distance so as not to look like she is actually following me. I worry about her but she is a smart cat so hopefully no harm will come to her on her daily jaunts. We got her from the pound three years ago. They did asked us if she would be an indoor or outdoor cat and they gave us all the statistics trying to convince us to keep her indoors – that the average indoor cat lives 15 to16 years and the average outdoor cat lives 3 to 4’s years. So, we tried very hard to keep her indoors but every time the dog went out she tried to follow the dog and when we would snatch her up before she could make it out the door, the look she would give us. It was like she was saying, “you’re telling me the dog gets to go outside but I can’t? Well this sucks.”
In the end her persistence to get out paid off. In the winter months she spends a lot of time with us but in the summer we hardly see her. Ms. Independence. The girls and I are very fond of her though and so is Greg and he is not a cat person.

posted by mary j. @ 9:07 AM