i’m the house/menagerie sitter

for my daughter and her family

waiting for me at her house

two cats, kind of twin-ish

not always sure which is in or out or both?

also one of the sweetest dogs ever

 cocoa, like the chocolate

the pets must think me to be a monster

quickly found out the invisible fence isn’t working

when I let cocoa out

two different kind neighbors brought her home

the snow melted

on the day they left

she immediately has spring fever

 have to put cocoa on a long lead in the yard

she feels restricted refuses to walk around or sit down

just stares in the window sadly

can’t find her leash, have one delivered

we go on long walks

like steering an excitable pony

finally calming

 at about the forty minute mark

we are home again

now she is sad

when I eat and don’t share my food with her

 when i

work on a puzzle or write or watch a movie or read

or do anything else

she stands by me or lays by me and stares

 have to hide my eating, keep it a secret, open things silently

 feeling guilty

she has lots of food and water and a treat when she comes back inside

still feel guilty somehow

all three sleep with me

i carve out a spot in the middle

one cat gets up at 4;30 am

wakes up the whole menagerie

i try to play dead

none of them is buying it

boom

the new day officially begins

  put cocoa on the long lead outside

 still dark and too early to walk

  sad again and staring in the window

 all she wants

is to take off or come in and stare at me

one of the cat twins is yelling to go out

the other is circling me

everyone gets treats

 let sweet cocoa back in

 started raining in the ten minutes she was out

now muddy and wet

 wipe her down with a towel

cover the couch with beach towels

blow dry her whole body

wrap her in a blanket

she stares at me sadly from the couch

so dramatic

norma desmond in sunset boulevard

as I eat early breakfast silently

sip quiet giant coffee

one or two cats are somewhere

turn on the olympics

cocoa and i sit side by side touching on the sofa

staring

we have found our happy routine.

 

—

“humor is perhaps a sense of intellectual perspective: an awareness that some things are really important, others not; and that the two kinds are most oddly jumbled in everyday affairs.”

-christopher morley