 |
 |
|
CHAPTER VII
KALI July 16 Monday late morning Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat
Robert Heinlein I lay there for a long while after Cyclops slunk away, thinking about what he'd said. I'd never questioned any of Sam's decisions, assuming we were partners. I wondered if Sam had really done that to me; what did Cyclops call it? Had me "fixed?" I wondered if Cyclops could be trusted. He was a pretty cool cat; not handsome, for sure, but fascinating. What would it be like to join the gang here? I couldn't wait to meet the rest! I drifted off to sleep, switching dreams between sitting in Sam's lap and perching on the mast of a pirate's ship, a giant rat dangling from my teeth. The next morning I awakened to the sound of a huge ruckus. Over at the edge of the building, where the water lapped in and swirled the mud, Cyclops was having a head-on with a big herring gull. Each had hold of the end of a gray trout, and neither looked like they were planning to give up anytime soon. I strolled over, finding that I felt much better. "Get behind him" Cyclops growled. "Swat him a time or two." I picked my way through the mud rather squeamishly, then reached out a tentative paw toward the gull. "I'm not used to doing this," I meowed. "Well get used to it," he snarled. I tapped the gull on the wing, and a moment later Cyclops had jerked the fish out of his beak and huddled over it protectively. The gull retreated with screams of outrage, and I suddenly felt immensely proud of myself. I had helped catch my own breakfast, and let me tell you, gray trout had never tasted so good! Cyclops and I both took catnaps, and then he led me out behind the building we'd been hiding under. Turns out it was the fish house Sam and I had seen. We walked along the seawall, hopping from piling to piling, avoiding the yellow lab I had seen the evening before. Cyclops said he belonged to one of the workers there. Said he wasn't a real cat chaser, but better to be safe than sorry. Boy, you didn't have to convince me! We snuck around behind one of the houses I'd seen from the boat and there, hiding in the grass, was a black and yellow tortoiseshell. "Hey, Toots!" Cyclops called out. "I want you to meet someone. This here is Blowboater!" I meowed a protest and started to tell them Sam's name for me, then changed my mind. Before the day was over he'd introduced me to half a dozen felines, all colors and sexes. The females, I soon learned, had a slightly different attitude about being fixed, or "spayed", as they called it. "Oh my dear," purred a long-haired black named Scarlet. "You just don't know how much easier life has been since my operation. I used to spend all my time either fighting off nasty tomcats or raising babies. I mean, the first time or two it was kind of fun, and I did love my kittens. But after a while I was just exhausted, and there was so much to worry about; cars and dogs and, well sometimes the kittens would just get sick for no reason and die. It could be heartbreaking. Now I just have to worry about myself and look at me; I'm getting positively chubby. And," she touched a paw to the slit in her ear, "this is the absolute latest in fashion. I love it!" Well, I thought to myself, maybe what Sam did to me wasn't so bad. Still, he could have consulted me first. HARVEY, July 16 Monday late morning His name is not Wild Dog anymore, but the First Friend
Rudyard Kipling Emily was still pretty upset when she woke up the next morning, but at least she was willing to talk to me. She fixed a cup of coffee and opened up her newspaper, but instead of reading it she put it down and took my face in her hands. "I wonder if that man has found his cat. I know you didn't mean any harm, Harvey, but what an awful thing you've done. And you would have to pick someone so...so...sexy, no, cute…so likeable, I don't know, but now he's so mad." I gazed into her eyes, trying to be likeable and cute myself, trying to show her how completely sympathetic I was. "He hates me now, Harvey, and he doesn't even know me, and he'll probably never know me, and I think I would have really liked to know him. Of all the cats to chase, Harvey, why did you have to choose his?" And she wrapped her arms around me, laid her face on top of my head, and slowly rocked back and forth. We hadn't seen anything more of that awful man in the car, but I could tell Emily was still upset about that. And mad! I overheard her talking to several people, and everyone seemed to agree with her. No one seemed to want an oil-drilling rig off the island's coast. The fishermen worried about what it would do to their livelihood, already in trouble. The people with tourist businesses wondered if tourists would want to come to an island where oil might spoil the beaches. And the people who loved the island and the sea worried most of all. Trouble was, no one seemed to know what to do about it. "Law's on their side," her Uncle Fred said. "I talked to the guy who spoke. The government sold them the lease years ago. Course, we can always call in Earth First and Greenpeace!" He said that with a slight grin, but I knew he was worried too. KALI, July 17 Tuesday afternoon …Pussy and I very gently will play.
She shall sit by my side, and I’ll give her some food And she’ll love me me because I am gentle and good. Author unknown I spent the night with Toots, camped out in an old shed. By the next day I was feeling much stronger and I was getting very worried about the Skipper. I felt like I ought to get back to the boat, but I was having the time of my life. Toots showed me how to catch a mouse in the morning, and later Cyclops dropped off a half-eaten sparrow. I knew how much Sam disapproved of killing birds, so I felt guilty as I scarfed down a bite. Maybe it was just because it was forbidden, but boy, did it taste good! Toots and Scarlet were trying to talk me into hanging with them and forgetting about Sam, and I'm not saying I never considered it. But Sam had saved my life, and I owed him. Besides, the truth is, I loved the man, though I wouldn't have told my new friends that. They had never had a person of their own, and they just wouldn't understand. I kept looking across the harbor at the Mary Bee, thinking how lonely and dejected she looked. And once I thought I heard Sam calling me in a kind of hopeless voice. No, much fun as this life was, I had responsibilities. I'd have to figure out something to tell Cyclops and the rest and find my way back soon. HARVEY, July 17 Tuesday early afternoon If animals could speak the dog would be a blundering, outspoken fellow
Mark Twain The weather Tuesday was windy and rainy, so Emily decided not to go clamming. She got out oatmeal and the other ingredients to bake Loren's cookies instead, so I lay down in the kitchen doorway, watching to see if she needed any help. Sure enough, she dropped a spoonful of batter, which required my services in cleaning it up. Afterwards she decided to catch up on some letter-writing, and I curled up beside her and relaxed. I was thinking about how lucky I was to be here with Emily, and soon I found myself thinking about the past again and how different my life had been before she found me. Professor Monowsky had meant well, I suppose. Annie, who is just naturally a lady, might have done very well with him as an owner. Even Jackson might have worked out. But I guess I'm just a rebel at heart. I tried to be good, honest I did, but I just couldn't seem to get it right. First thing I did when I got to his house was hop up on the couch, and Lord, you'd have thought I'd just bit the mailman! Seems like it was all downhill from there. I knocked over wine glasses, splattered ink, scattered papers, whatever was the wrong thing to do, I did it. The professor never raised hand or voice against me; he'd just peer over his glasses at me with an expression like I'd just conjugated a Latin verb in the wrong tense. It wasn't the professor who landed me in jail though; I guess I did that myself. One day after he left for work I noticed he'd left the back door unlatched. I sneaked out and, by George, I did have me a good time. Turned over a garbage can at the Smiths' and found some great barbecued ribs, dug a hole in Mrs. Swigler's rose bed and buried one of them, sat on the Adams' chaise lounge and ate the other one, getting barbecue sauce all over it! It wasn't till the dogcatcher slung his net over me that I began to have regrets. I thought maybe the professor would come bail me out, but he didn't. I just sat in that cage getting bluer and bluer. Then one day a heavy man with dark hair and no eyebrows came to the shelter. He was looking for a guard dog, he said, for his junkyard. He seemed to think I was the dog for the job, so he paid my fee and took me with him. Well, I was glad to get out of that cage, so I tried real hard to be nice. The man kind of gave me the creeps and I didn't think much of my new surroundings, but I knew I'd better make the best of things. I wagged my tail at everyone who came to the gate, working real hard at being hospitable. My new owner, Bubba, didn't seem real happy with me, so I just tried harder, remembering how some of the dogs at the pound had licked everyone in the face. Some of the characters who showed up at the gate looked mean as a lizard, so it was hard, but I made myself do it. Guess that's not what Bubba wanted, ‘cause the next thing I knew I was back at the pound and he was demanding his money back (which he didn't get). Said I wasn't much of a watchdog! I was feeling like just as much of a failure as you could get when Emily came along and saved me. So when she finished writing her letters and asked me did I want to go for a walk, I gave her the biggest slurpiest kiss you can imagine!    |
|