Politics At Home

I have to be careful. As I write this, my lovely Bengal cat Sabrina ( the one with the long claws she loves to use) sits on the shelf above, pretending not to be watching me. Her sober ( and somewhat judgmental) brother, Marcus, is not too far away. Near my feet is my cattle …

The True Story

What about the year we were born? Don't you think you're imposing just a bit on our short friendship? Well, OK. It began with a genuinely amative relationship between Mom and Dad. She was a purebred Bengal cat, and he was the neighborhood chief mouser. What can you say? They had chemistry. Not long after, …

Cats and Dogs

Growing up as the son of a marine engineer who swallowed the anchor," there were always going to be cats around. There were also going to be dogs because ancient tales going back to the prehistoric period described the doings of family dogs. Usually, the two coexisted. Sometimes, the two formed a team for the …

!Stop! Enough, already!

Me: Marcus, get off! Enough of this already. You can't supervise me all the time! Later, Marcus to Sabrina: Do you think we really need to take him to obedience school? The dog seemed to be snickering as he suggested it.

Work!

The new stunt around the house is that the cats want to ride my shoulders to and from the woodpile. This adds a certain aerobic potential to keeping home fires burning in the wood stove. If I owned a set of weights, I could pawn them for extra cash. Marcus is pretty easy to handle. …

Escape!

Max: The escape committee pulled one off today, and they didn't let me in on it. They called me a fink and a toady to management! I showed them! When Mom and Dad discovered they were missing, I led the "rescue operation." I led Mom right to where they were hiding. I got a very …