Monday, October 27, 2008

flurries, cat claws and bird noises

Suddenly, it is very cold outside. The wind, the bursts of freezing precipitation – all of it is very uninviting.

But didn’t I just put into a book format an effusive rhapsody about how beautiful outdoor Madison is, year round?

(It’s interesting that I chose that theme at the time that crickets chirped, and dragonflies buzzed, and raspberries turned red, and the sun felt too warm.)

As it is, I had no choice but to head out today. True, I have no classes on Monday, but appointments forced me to go downtown. And then, since I was just a stone’s throw from Ed’s farmette, I visited his cats.


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Isis
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Larry
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I did not need to do this. Ed hired a cat lady to come in his absence and prowl around and feed his two strays some of that awful looking 9-lives stuff out of a can. But I wanted to demonstrate my respect for his two "kitties," which are really sort of like his two "kiddies." Sometimes, I’m sure Ed thinks I would shove the cats off their territorial perches if I could (they can be overbearing), but really, I do not mind them. You can’t expect much from cats who survived in the wild before showing up at his door. I remain grateful for the occasional purring noises that they throw my way. I pet them and then we go on doing our own thing.


Outside, the robins were out furiously going after the crab apples, the snow showers came and went -- in short, it was a perfect end of October kind of day. If you like the end of October.


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