Cat on the Fence, greeting (sort of) visitors to the homestead one late afternoon in September, photo © 2010 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
Something about October’s approach. Strange things start to happen.
Earlier this week I drove up the long drive to our house. There on the mahogany fence was The Cat. I don’t know where she came from—originally that is. Probably came with the house, along with the 1950s powdercoat-yellow metal lawn chairs, left behind by the former owner.
I do know that Sony the Pug mangled the poor tabby and that Jim keeps her (the cat, not Sony) because he has likes to move her from place to place around the yard. She lounged in the wide Y of an old cottonwood all summer long, and then suddenly there she is, sitting on the fence one late September afternoon, looking as real as real can be.
Then yesterday when I got up, I heard rustling in the laundry room. The tea kettle was about to whistle, and I had just come in from dumping the day-old coffee grounds out onto my ice plants. I could hear the noise, like a rummaging through paper. I hit the light switch; the sound went away. Turned off the lights and went back to my morning routine, disturbed by the notion that a mouse must have gotten into Sony’s dog food bag and couldn’t get out. (Of course, I planned to wait for Jim to get out of the shower before testing that theory.)
Moments later as I approached the kettle to pour hot water into the French press, I noticed a dark blob moving across the linoleum. Oh no, I thought, a hurt mouse! I moved closer. It hopped. And hopped and hopped, toward the Chambers stove. I thought it was going to hop right into the crevice between stove and cabinets and back behind the appliance where I’d never be able to capture it. There it would hide out for years only to emerge five times fatter and bumpier. I held out my hand and turned away as if I were picking up dog poop. It took me several tries but finally I caught the toad and took it out the shade garden.
This isn’t the first reptilian visitor to the house. Week before last I had to escort a young bullsnake out to the garden. I found it trying to slither across the floor in our bedroom. It wasn’t getting far, thanks to the miracle cleaning product vinegar-and-water; in fact, it looked more sidewinder than bullsnake.
And this wasn’t the first snake, either. Jim found one once when I was traveling. Nor are snakes and toads the only reptiles that like to visit us inside the house. We also once found a box turtle making its way down the hall, and one night I caught a lizard that had fallen asleep under a lamp near our bookshelves.
The great outdoors has been making its way indoors through the doggy-made doggy-portal, which is actually a large right-angle slit in the screen door that Sony the Pug (yes, she is a bundle of chewing, scratching energy) created so that she wouldn’t have to wait for us to let her in and out.
What is it about fall? Harvest moons and long shadows.
Tonight Em spent an hour brainstorming Halloween costumes. Last year she was a Porta-Potty. This year she thought maybe she’d go as something more stylish—Lady Gaga, for example. But her older sister warned that everyone and their brother will be Lady Gaga this Halloween, so the search continues.
We’ll keep our eyes peeled for unique costume ideas. Hey, maybe we could dress her up as one reptile-creature that I hope to NEVER see in my home. The chupacabra.
Wowza! I love this. So pretty, and full of character.
-L
LikeLike
Cats. I’m siding with the pug.
LikeLike
The photo is great, capturing the late light and the beat-up
ol” Tom. It’s classic. I love the way you get it just so, the moment glows.
This morning I woke up to a pleasant sight: a mystery cat (neighbors? stray?) decided to vomit on my chaise lounge last night. Why? Reminds me of the days when we had four cats (now, in coyote country – zero) and puking on the carpet was a daily occurence. Don’t miss that!
We have a “tin cat” to catch and release mice, a humane trap – this summer we had a lizard loose in the house, spotted a few times. R went to empty the trap when he heard a mouse rattling in there – and it was the lizard! Glad we don’t have a spring trap, I would have felt very bad about it.
LikeLike
oh and I forgot, Lady Gaga is known for her Meat Dress, no?
I can’t see that on the racks at Ross, really – can you? so then, is it the flesh-colored bodysuit, peroxide locks and black-widow mascara? That is scary.
LikeLike
Yes, I could see the Meat dress costume, little fake cuts of T-Bone. Those costume stores like Spirit, which crop up every year about a month before Halloween, must make a killing.
So you had a strange cat in the house and it left you a gift? Yikes. The neighbor’s dog comes over all the time, and one time it came in through the “doggy door,” came back into my office (which is pretty far away from the door, through quite a few rooms and doors) found me and then high-tailed it out. The dog likes to do it’s number out in the field. 8)
Gunnar, ha! That one made me chuckle.
LikeLike
Ok, first of all, I thought that was a real cat before I read on. You clever girl.
Second, I certainly can’t keep my mouth shut when the subject of Halloween comes up. I went to work today with one of my Day of the Dead aprons on, complete with rhinestone spider ring (a new gift) and my beloved rhinestone web pin (from Salem). If you ever happen to be in Salem in October, you will think I’m normal….
yb, please tell Em my all time favorite costume and the one that named the legend…was “the Queen of Halloween”. I bought a cheapo crown and added fake jewels and top the pointy portion with claw fingers. Then i made the staff i held from a small broomstick topped with a skull head and peacock plumes puffing out of the top. I made the dress (and i barely sew) from many of the iridescent fabrics they offer in …God help me…Joannes. Jewel tones, all shimmery in the light, look great. Add some interesting detailed ribbon for edging and a shear iridescent cape attached to the shoulders (the kind of fabric that has a different color to each side)with a couple a cool jeweled buttons, some cheap costume jewelry rings (big colored glass) to every finger…and man, that makes the coolest costume…while still being able to pee.
LikeLike
I will definitely share that costume idea with Em. Do you have a photo of it, by chance? I’d love to see it. And I do love JoAnne’s Fabrics. We have one very close by. I always go there and see the serious sewers buying fabric, and I walk among all the reams. I’ve only ever bought a few items, like black fabric for a table cloth. I never even hemmed the cut edge, I’m such a klutz when it comes to sewing. 8(
LikeLike
I feel rather stupid, I did think it was a real cat that hangs around your place. So, is it stuffed, like a taxidermy job, or a toy? Too strange. Also if you go to an old blog archive page from some years back on C Little No Less you will see my old cat, Wylie, if you scroll down, who resembles your mascot.
As for the cat (I am assuming it was a cat) who visited us, it did not come in, but left the prize on a chaise lounge in my little east-facing courtyard, where of course I would be lucky enough to find it first thing in the morning.
LikeLike
sorry, did not leave the url for the orange cat
http://chickenlil.blogspot.com/2004_01_01_archive.html
LikeLike
It’s a strange statue, a hard plastic mold with a layer of thin fuzzy fabric. Makes for a real-looking cat. The post I Scream, You Scream [LINK] also contains photo of it, which my friend Jana took once when she was here visiting.
Yes, I saw Wylie. I loved that photo of him where you could just make him out behind the kitchen island. One of those chance shots. I love how our animals appear that way in photos.
Ah, when I read about the vomit on the chaise-lounge, I assumed it was inside. But that would be too danged weird. At least on outdoor furniture, one finds unexpected things. Turkey scat, for instance. 8)
LikeLike
yes that would be weirder, but I don’t have a cat, so it was surprising…
ooh that cat is too freaky with the “cod-webs” (that’s what Noah calls them)
LikeLike
I know, isn’t that wild? More than two years after the cat was photographed in all its cod-webbed glory (to use a Noah-ism), it shows up on the fence post.
That’s Jim for you. Like the times I arrive in whatever city I’m traveling to (lately, Saigon) and open my luggage to find “Moo-ela,” the small plastic cow that is tucked into my underwear. Mooela now has only three legs, and I’ve found her in places from San Jose, Costa Rica (in the early 1990s) to Johannesburg, South Africa, to Portland, Phoenix, WDC, Ho Chi Minh City…and places beyond. Because Jim keeps hiding her into my luggage, a little inside secret. Just like he is these days surprising me with the mangled cat. “The new Mooela.”
8)
LikeLike
That is too cute, I love it. Ask Jim, maybe he would like some trolls? ? ? sure he would….
LikeLike
Jim’s response: “Trolls? Well, we already have one. But I wouldn’t mind a few more…” 8)
LikeLike
yb. I can’t even find my couch at this point! You don’t have to sew. I sure don’t. I sewed the Simplicity guide sheet to the back of the dress I made in Home Economics! Now I use velcro, glue guns and safety pins! When I HAVE to, I dig out my first edition Brother from Sears that sews 5 things: straight dashed lines, bigger straight dash lines and 3 sizes of zig-zag lines. Just remember…All kids LOVE sparkly, iridescent fabric. I remember cutting the front of the costume at the same time as the back (like a cookie) and just sewing the 2 pieces together with a big enough hole at the top so my head fit through! The shiny, cool fabric takes away from lack sewing skills and a length of fabric pinned to the shoulders for a cape covers anything!! Edge sleeves and neck with cool ribbon (glue)… Add feathers and fake jewels…and voila!
LikeLike
ybonesy, I love how the Cat and the plastic cow keep showing up in the most unlikely places. It’s kind of romantic on Jim’s part. Playful and fun. I like that about him.
It’s fun to read this piece. It’s pensive, the way I feel in October. We’ve got a door under the house where some kind of critter is trying to make its way in. Might be mice. The cats have been on high alert.
I really like the change of seasons, transitional places that beg me to enter them. Sometimes mysterious. Sometimes cool and beckoning. I never know what I will find there. But I have to go.
Can’t wait to see what the Halloween costumes are going to be in your house this year. Heather, the Queen of Halloween, has got some great ideas!
LikeLike
Oh, I wanted to say one other thing about this piece. It’s kind of journal-like. I’m reading one of May Sarton’s journals, one she kept toward the end of her life. It reminds me that journal writing has a flavor all its own. I have tons of old journals I kept from over the years. I’m seriously thinking about a journal practice next year. This year I’ve been keeping at the BlackBerry 365 practice. I’ll also need another visual practice. Haven’t landed on that yet. But keeping a journal again is kind of appealing to me. When’s the last time you kept a journal?
LikeLike