A Cat's Life
Mary Winters
Sounds outside the apartment door:
two neighbors, friends who must
discuss their cats -- one must
always have a cat, not more than
one certainly but there must be
no breaks in the succession.
(Last year the newspaper reported
a city-wide “cat shortage” --
not even a judge could get one.)
A cat is exciting at the beginning
and end of its life. If it is
ailing and mistreated when brought
home, a special feeding program and
basks under a heat lamp provide news
for days. Otherwise bulletins come
when it is succumbing to its
final illness -- three a.m. calls
to the vet and costly treatments.
Some cats can go from the
beginning to the end with no
plateaus in between. A psychologist
might call the human need to
create drama “excess baggage”.
For cats it is simply a part of
their domestication deal. One of
their roads to survival.
