It's hard to be perfect

On a drive to town a few weeks ago to take Roger to dialysis, we were listening to Scriptures on Cd's, and my mind wandered a little and I began thinking about what it would take to be perfect. I wondered if I could be perfect for a day or even an hour. So right then and there, on the road, I decided to try. And I did pretty well for about five minutes before the trouble started. We were running a little bit late and needed to drive at a reasonable speed to get Roger to his appointment on time, but then we came up behind a slow-moving red convertible sports car. We followed the car patiently for several miles on the narrow, winding, mountainous road until we came to a straight-away, where passing was allowed. As we began to pass the man driving the red sports car turned in his seat and stared at us. I was surprised at the mean look he gave us as we passed him. And I was even more surprised to see his hand raised above the windshield (remember, it was a convertible) and a certain finger raised. Looking in my rear-view mirror, I could see that hand still raised long after we had passed him. Before long my surprise turned to anger. What right did he have to take such offense at being passed! The thought entered my head that I should stop, let him catch up to us and let him have it! I could feel the adrenalin taking over, hands shaking, face red and hot...I was mad and wanted to take revenge. All my thoughts about being perfect had gone out of the window. But being the chicken that I am, I kept driving and eventually cooled off, realizing that I couldn't even go five minutes without messing up.

cats are people too

Unless you take the time to get to know a cat...it's just a cat. But if you do take time to be a friend and observe you will discover that cats are people too! They each have their own personalities, likes, dislikes, sense of humor and quirks just like people.

I try to take my kitties on a walk every day. It's not a very long walk, it's just out in a field across from my house. I call this walk, 'the kitty walk', and we go on a little trail that I call, 'the kitty trail.' Usually three of my kitties; Zeke, Teddy and Patsy, join me on this walk. And it is along this trail that I've really gotten to know my little friends. Each time we return home after the trek, I have something new to tell Roger about what I have observed.

One thing I have learned is how smart and sneaky Patsy is. As we reach the top of the hill, turn around and head for home, Patsy always runs ahead and finds a weed or bush to hide behind. And there she waits for the next unsuspecting kitty to walk by, and when they do, she jumps out from her hiding place, causing the victim to jump straight up in the air a foot or two. I then watch as a merry chase begins and Patsy chases the victim for a few yards. Teddy has taken Patsy's lead and tried this ambush trick himself, except that he doesn't hide behind a weed, he just lays belly-down in the middle of the trail, as flat as he can get and waits for his victim. The problem with this technique is that it's no surprise - Patsy or Zeke see him and just make a wide circle around him.

in the beginning there were cats...

For some reason I've always loved cats. Before I reached the age of two, I had a cat that I named all by myself. I called it 'Duddle Luddle'. In my two-year-old mind this was a perfectly logical name and very descriptive of it's tail that curled up, around and forward. When the traveling photographer came knocking at our door, my mom thought it would be a good idea to have my portrait taken. But alas, I wouldn't sit still for the picture unless I had my cat. So with my little hands clutching Duddle Luddle tightly around the neck, I sat nicely for my portrait.

My next encounter with a cat was at a birthday party. While the other kids were playing party games and and eating cake, I was playing with the house kitten, a fuzzy little white thing that happened to have ringworm. Shortly thereafter I developed ringworm on the top of my head which was promptly shaved and painted with purple medicine.