Cats
by Ann Bogle
They climb on you and get their claws stuck in the purple lace tablecloth on which is set your laptop, and you imagine euthanizing them if what she says is true, that she is leaving them to you in her will. Not that you didn't at one time like cats, even wrote of them, in eulogies of parting, the family as it once was. It's just that you can't imagine driving dying cats to the veterinarian as you once did in an elaborate gesture of pro-life. Really, it was love for them that drove you. Love that's all right. The kind of love that's not forbidden now but treacle. It was dust in the toolbin. Twenty-year ashes in urns. It was hair on the kitchen chair. It was a rash above your lip and below your nose that lasted from the day the boy cat came home until the season he died and for which a topical steroid ointment was prescribed without any warning from the HMO doctor that it might lead to promiscuous hunting, as it did. The woman dermatologist advised you better, even though her concern was not with promiscuous hunting—you never looked like a promiscuous hunter as you sat in the exam room—but with broken capillaries on your face, something that could devastate (so strong a word) a woman's chance to marry. After all, keeping cats might devastate the same chance. Better to keep a large dog to bite men or show off your churchgoing to tame the senses.
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Author's Note
The 52/250 theme "animal behavior" due January 16, 2011.
Animal writing:
"The Deer": http://annbogle.blogspot.com/2007/06/deer.html
"The Bluejays":
http://annbogle.blogspot.com/2007/05/bluejays-came-to-build-nest-in-blue.html
"Animals in Reverse":
http://annbogle.blogspot.com/2007/01/xam-paragraph-series-c-2005-by-ann.html
"Animals, Part 1":
http://annbogle.blogspot.com/2006/12/ann-bogle-c-2006_29.html
"Animals, Part 2":
http://annbogle.blogspot.com/2006/12/xam-paragraph-series-c-2005-by-ann_29.html
"Animals, Part 3":
http://annbogle.blogspot.com/2006/12/animals-part-1.html
Other stories by Ann Bogle
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Great piece, Ann. Like this.
what a ride. enjoyed this greatly, right down to the broken capillaries. cats easily get you thinking and improvising.
This is terrific from start to finish. *
Ooh, scary. A dog to bite men? Lighten up, Ann. The Metrodome roof will be repaired before you know it. *
Love how you've done this, Ann, the energized prose brings us to - It was dust in the toolbin - which functions as a sort of locus for the story and makes perfect painful sense.
This is delightful and dark, humorous yet a serious glimpse at ourselves. Love it!
I really admire the wonderful way in which you make a sentence work within such a short span of text - tactile, wrapping and unwrapping around the heart of the matter:
love in particular how this is revealed: "something that could devastate (so strong a word) a woman's chance to marry." * (will follow links as well)
Beautifully dense, rich, resonant, inspiring. Thank you!
Ann you never fail to amaze me. Such a dreamy, violent, indulgent and funny story.
*
This is just so damn fine Ann. I agree that this just does it, it quirky and true feeling ... and the promiscuous hunting bit you bring to this just totally gets me laughing.
Sam, Marcus, Kim, Jack, Sara, Susan, Julie, Deb, Susan, and Meg: I so appreciate your readings here. It was not so much hard to write as hard to see what I'd written.
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cats sure bring out the best in us
tame those senses, little lady!