Lost Cat
Today, my neighbors' cat was lost. Since Saturday, actually. At one
point, I came home and found Dbot and her best friend drawing careful
pictures of the missing cat on flyers. The flyers were so
perfect, it broke my heart, b/c I knew that the cat had met an untimely
end in traffic. (ok, so I'm no ray of sunshine). Anyway, hours
later, after I'd battled the lawn for the day with weed whacking and
watched my son and his best friend play with worms for two hours
(including an elaborate game they had planned [but I put a stop to]
whereby they put the worms in the turned off garden hose and then
turned the hose on to blast the worms across the yard), I was out on my
street at dusk. One of the flyers Dbot and her best friend had prepared
had fallen forward off a pole near my house. I sadly straightened it
and re taped it to the pole. A car drove up. A nice woman asked if it
was my cat on the flyer. I admitted it was not, but that I was sad for
the little girl who lost the kitty. It turns out she had the
cat. It turns out that on Saturday this cat had sauntered up to her
house and gotten free bed and board for three days acting all pitiful
and abandoned. In addition, two days ago she had asked the
cat's owner (a little boy)'s best friend if the cat was the cat in
question but he indicated that the cat was the wrong color. As of
tonight, the cat is home where he belongs. I love happy endings.
The fireflies are out. Sweatone and I chased them. He caught one,
but he had forgotten in the intervening winter to be gentle, and
accidentally killed the little guy. He was sad over it and I had
to show him using his finger as a pretend fire fly (to show the right
amount of pressure) how to catch them. Often I am struck by how
innately violent we are. Children have to be taught how to be
gentle. It is not intrinsic.