Homeless - 83

Greetings, bipeds,

Kinda hot, eh? The heat in the Dallas area recently could have fried the hide off of lizard's testicles.I assume the males of the species have some but I'm not in the habit of checking out the balls of any life-form. I tell myself that I just have to endure this until the end of September when it starts to cool off to the low 90's. It's twue that I have options to escape the heat and sleep comfortably in AC but I don't want to appear wimpy at the first sign of discomfortt. I tell myself that I'm saving those options when it really gets tough, like when the dark underlord shows up and I might need a little help.

I'm continuing the same theme as the last couple of posts; that of my non-human relationships, excluding those that required an air pump and plastic inflatable caricatures. The last post told of Chief, a half-Doberman, half-Shepard that shared some time with me. The same goes for Mookie who was not my legal companion but a close associate, never the less.

The last relationship of that kind that I'm sharing with you is about a car, a feline domesticus, great hunter and predator. Her name was Cassandra (Cass) and I adopted her from the SPCA when she was three months old, by their reckoning. She had short hair, all black and gold eyes. It turned out that she was a special feline who matured into a special friend. She was procured during a time when I cohabitated with a human female. She had bought a miniature Schnoozer and I thought a counter-balance was needed. On a whim, I stopped by a SPCA with really no goal in mind and toured the cat area. If you never visited a place like that, do so. Cats meowing, dogs barking, camels spitting, water buffalo trying to kill you, the occasional giraffae trying to hoof you - Matrix skills are a much needed ability. Anyway, I went to the feline section where there was, of course, much meowing - they know there is an expiration date somewhere in their near future. While touring the cages, I stopped by one that was quiet and a cat roused and came to the front of the cage. She raised a paw and put it on the bar of the cage and softly meowed. And there was that look in her eyes.

I am digressing at this point. There is something about the eyes of a living being that reflects their character, assuming they ain't a leafy plant but we'll get back to that. If they are beaten down, been abused, the cant of their eyes will reflect that. Of course, there are those few that my have been in that situation but still have the strength of character to bounce back and extend a middle finger/claw to the world saying 'fuck you'. Of those, those that have this attitude, human or not, there is an intensity in their eyes, a shine, a directness that is devoid of being subjugated, of being defeated. Hope, curiosity and exploration are elements that are alive in such eyes.

Such as it was with Cass. I turned to the attendant and said that she is coming with me. And a relationship that lasted around three years began, with prevailing elements of laughter, affection, discovery and sorrow.

The first time it snowed in Wichita, the first time for Cass anyway, I came home and found her sitting in front of the 2nd story sliding glass door, watching it snow. She looked at me, meowed and returned watching the snow. I changed out of the corporate clothes into a sweatsuit, walked down the stairs and told her to 'let's go', heading for the first story level to the townhouse that had a sliding glass door in the back, I picked her up and went outside into the heavy snowfall. She was coiled around my neck, eyes alive watching the quiet snowfall. After standing a couple of minutes, I reached out a hand with palm up and collected a bit of snow with her watching. I put it in my mouth and collected some more and put it to her mouth. She sniffed a bit and started licking the rest of it. I put her down and she roamed, finallly running back up my leg and wrapped around my neck as if she had enough.

Still think of her now and then.



P.S.

I wrote this post and never published it. I wrote it in Aug. 2010. Anyway there are more posts coming.