Member-only story
My Cat, Willie Explained the Summer Solstice to Me Today
And by golly, he did a pretty good job of it! At least as far as I could tell. Who am I to argue with a talking cat anyway?
It’s one of those later June days here in southeastern South Dakota. The temperature is creeping up into the high 80s and maybe going to kiss 90. There’s a warm southerly breeze blowing through the window open in our home office as I type this. I can hear a variety of birds singing in the trees on the front lawn outside.
About an hour ago I could hear my neighbor screaming at his kids:
“Hey! Get off the damned garages. You're not supposed to be up there. Get in the house right now you little fucker! You know what? You’re grounded until your mother comes by tonight to pick you up.”
Ahhh, school’s out. I love the sound of parental caring.
Fortunately, my furry son, Willie and I have a much more congenial relationship — as long as I remember who’s the boss.
Willie is often full of surprises. Oh, I don’t mean turds. He seldom poops on the floor. Unless we don’t get his litter box completely changed out at the end of the month. Then he might just start leaving a few lumps of bowel production by the bookcase in the dining room.
I can’t blame him, though. I taught him how to read a calendar back when he was about a year old, so he’d quit asking how much time until his birthday and Christmas and such. So, it’s mostly my fault, I guess.
Anyway, I had just finished my bowl of Vanilla Almond Special-K cereal. I walked into the kitchen to put the bowl in the dishwasher and happened to glance at the calendar on the wall. “Holy Buckets!” I said out loud, “It’s the first day of summer!”
And then, from the living room came, “Right you are Popster. But it’s also called the summer solstice.”
I turned around to look, and there was none other than my cat, Willie, sitting up in his kitty tower aka Tower of Power. He told me to grab a cup of joe and come over and sit down on the couch. Then…
