Journal of a Living Lady #177

 

Nancy White Kelly

 

Dr. Suess has his Cat in the Hat. This Dr. Kelly has her Cat in the Attic.

 

While Dr. Suess and I share many things in common, I can think of a few diferences, not the least of which is that he is dead. I am not.

 

We both have academic credentials which are a tad misleading. While we might appear to be lofty scholars, we aren't. Our elementary humor sustains us and simultaneously entertains others.

 

In case you aren't up on big name book titles in the preschool world, The Cat In The Hat rates right up at the top.  Dr. Seuss wrote many of his books with rhyming text so  young children would have something compelling to read. My generation wasn't as fortunate to have such amusing authors. However, I fondly remember Dick, Jane and Spot. They are still like old friends.

             The Cat in the Hat is about two children who have nothing to do on a rainy day.

Their mother is out and the Cat In the Hat appears with many ideas of what the children could do. Most mothers would not approve of his suggestions.

The cat balances things on his body. He brings in friends, Thing one and Thing two. They run amuck through the house. A talking fish tells the children their mother is coming and strongly suggests they get things in order immediately. The story ends with the mother asking what they did while she was out. Their response is, of course,

"Nothing. "

Now, my adult side asks why did the mother leave the children alone? Why did the children let a stranger in the house?  My inner child enjoys the book immensely.

 

Another difference I note between Dr. Seuss and me is that his cat is fanciful fiction. My cat in the attic is real.

 

I was on a flea market jaunt recently and stopped at a yard sale on the way. A beautiful young Siamese cat scampered across my feet. On impulse, I ask the yard-sale lady how much the kitten was. She didn't hesitate. Fifty dollars. This I knew was a reasonable price for such a pure-bred.

 

I gave the lady a $50 bill and returned shortly with a cardboard box. Only then did the lady tell me that Scattaway  was really a full grown female cat. She also volunteered that the miniature cat was not very tame, an understatement if I ever heard one.

 

After sneaking into the house to avoid Buddy and his twenty questions,  I locked the cat in the spare bedroom to give her time to adjust. The frightened cat proceeded to remove everything from the shelves with repeated, vindictive leaps.

The next morning I went to check on Scattaway.  She was nowhere to be seen. Several hours later, I found her hid inside the twin bed mattress. She had managed to rip a hole in the sheathing underneath and got far enough away from the gap that a reasonable length arm could not come near. It took a broom to drag her out.

 

How naive on my part to think sweet talking and gentle strokes would calm Scattaway down. As I tried to place her near the food and water, she clawed me and darted away. For three days we played her hide-n-seek games.

 

Buddy was not even aware Scattaway was a new resident until she darted past him as he opened the front door one morning.

 

"Nancy!" he yelled. I had some explaining to do.

 

Scattaway wasn't really free. Our front door leads to a screened porch. She was still trapped. The panicky cat raced up the screen to the porch rafters and quickly disappeared. I left her food and water, plus a litter box on the porch, anxiously awaiting her return.

 

 Then a strange thing happened. Five days later, a stray, pure-bred Siamese kitten came up to the Buddy in the garage, hungry and begging for attention. He called me, thinking this was our phantom cat. It wasn't. Bandit has unusual Siamese markings, somewhat like a mask. She made herself part of the family. Buddy's inquiry to neighbors brought news that Bandit was part of their litter of kittens. These neighbors had plenty of kittens and told Buddy we could keep Bandit. Yea!

 

So now we have two cats, one we play with daily and one we never see. Scattaway is still maintaining her distance in the attic. Either that or some hungry person is eating the dry cat food and using the litter box.

 

Email: nancyk@alltel.net