Two Latinos outside a sports bar at 10:00 a.m. Sunday. Different kind of church to pray.
Went to a writers meetup. Fell in love with everybody. A cast of characters in their own rights.
The man sitting next to me eating a bagel. Cleanest attire you'd ever met. Reeked of cat pee.
They say cats infect people with a protozoa that takes over their brain. Turns them into "cat people."
Obsessed with acquiring more and more cats. Oblivious of the ramifications of that.
I've had cats in my life.
The first I named Ticky-Ticky for no particular reason. He would wait for me to come home from school at the front porch steps.
And then Midnight, obviously a black cat. A stray I brought home from Storrs Lake. Made him into a house cat. Always regretted taking his claws away.
Once we moved to the country acquiring cats became too easy. People would throw them out of their car while driving by.
Within a few months we had a herd of barn cats. We called them the "welfare cats" because they refused to feed themselves and would harass you violently (if necessary) at the back door.
Except Midnight. No claws, he'd wander out into the fields and bring back birds and mice for the welfare cats.
We had a big gray tomcat come up once. Looked like he was dying. Long haired, matted.
Took him to the barn and shaved him bald.
And then one day they started disappearing. We had a least a dozen now with the welfare crowd.
Probably took a little while to realize 2 or 3 were missing. And then every week at least one more. Until the main players also went poof into thin air.
Even Midnight.
Our vet texted, "that's the biggest coyote I've ever seen, thought it was a wolf," one day driving away. Said it was standing in the middle of our driveway.
The last cat was Leroy Black and White. He had a jingle.
"Bad, bad Leroy Black and White. Meanest cat in the whole dang town!"
He was happy to live inside.
But cats are prone to kidney problems. And eventually our house smelled like the man sitting next to me.
We really shouldn't be feeding them plants. Too much calcium oxalate. They're obligate carnivores, but humans are dumb.
"What genre do you write?"
And I have no idea how to answer that, yet.
"Hey mom, do you remember the name of that gray cat at the farm that was all matted?"
"Greg? I thought he was my ex-boyfriend reincarnated!"
Even if I am the problem, who fucking cares?
