Thursday, February 01, 2007

This one's for Patty K

I know I haven't blogged in a little while, and I have a great posting about little boys in water that I have to write about. But...

...for her birthday, Angela got a book called Cat Crimes from her Aunt Pat. (Hi, Pat! Angela says she's writing thank you notes this weekend. This posting, however, may be even better, since it proves she's actually reading it!) The book is a short story collection of mystery stories featuring cats, sometimes even with cats as the narrators.

For example, the first two paragraphs of "Horatio Ruminates" by Dorothy P. Hughes, goes as follows. A note: despite the names here (um, unchanged to protect the guilty?), this is not a reality in our house. (I think...)

"Some people don't like cats. Some cats don't like people. We try to like all people. We do try. At least, some of us do. But, after all, how can we like people who don't like us? There's something in the atmosphere that measures like to like. And off-putting to off-putting.
"Some people hate cats. I mean, they it out loud. With special emphasis.
'I hate cats!' Alexander called Xan is one of those. He comes to visit his Aunt -- she is Milady -- and says right out, 'I hate cats.' It is little wonder that I don't like him. Yet I try. Every time he comes, I try. To no avail. I no sooner rub against his ankles than he explodes, 'I hate cats!' And follows this by his usual threatening, 'Scat, Cat!'"

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I saw that a character named Xan was in the book. Not your Xan, for sure. How is Vega by the way?
Patty K

Anonymous said...

Xan tried to touch Vega. Vega bite Xan. Xan stays away from Vega. Everyone is happy - until the neighbors' cats come in our yard, sending Vega into a freaky protective frenzy that most recently toppled a couple of trays of seedlings. But in general, all is well with small beasts in our house.