Suzy and Toots vs The Shapeshifter

 

Even scarier than the real thing!

          The night of Banging on Doors came and mostly went. Apparently, it was not uneventful. Deep in the middle of the night, the girls compared notes…

            “Toots, hey Toots. Are you there? Can you talk now?” Suzy said from way deep behind the old piano on the back porch. It was 3 AM there and 5 AM at Toots’ location. “Are you alright?”
            “Mrrrrr, eh…, I think so,” said Toots, sounding unsure, but coming in as clear as usual.
            “Let’s purr for a bit, then talk,” said Suzy, sounding a little scrambled.
            That helped. They got their transmissions synchronized after a few minutes, and continued.
            “Did you have visitors at your house, Toots,” asked Suzy. “You know, door bangers?”
            “I only saw one or two, Suzy. That was enough!” sighed Toots.
            “What did they look like,” said Suzy, obviously full of her own stories.
            “Well. What I saw was this. I don’t know what to make of it. It was not a child, or maybe even human, Suzy. That’s why I said one was enough. Under the Vdub for me after that one! He had a skintight black suit on, like it was stretchy. Creepy much? And he had a hat on. The one people call a bowler hat, black also.
            “But the worst part was his face. I don’t know what to think. Big weird black eyes with no white part. Real people have white in their eyes. Then he said his name! OZ! What’s an OZ? I gave up! I could hear it through the wall! I was gone!” said Toots, beyond rattled.
            “Come on, Toots! He can’t have been in two places at the same time,” yowled Suzy!
            “There can’t be two of them,” insisted Toots.
“Well, either there are two of them, or IT can be in two places at the same time, Toots. Take your pick,” said Suzy.
            “I don’t wanna! Prrt. Hsssssssss!” remarked Toots.
            “Well get this, Toots. At my house they have given up sugar. Lol! So there was no candy here except an old bag of rolls of Smarties, those nasty little dry things like pills you know? Well, haha, that’s what OZ got for his trouble on this porch, I’ll tell you,” snickered Suzy. (Do cats snicker?)

          “After that, Toots, a big black Raven pecked on the door! I’m not lying! When they opened the door the Raven said, ‘Evermore!’. They gave her Smarties too. She had to eat them on the spot. Ravens don’t have pockets apparently, but they are very greedy.”

            “NO! Stop! I saw her fly by! I swear she did! Right by my window, croaking that same stupid word,” said Toots.
            “Then there was a big hairy dog with a missing fang, that talked, and wore corduroy pants and a flashy shirt! He was disgusting. He smelled awful. Also, I did NOT trust him. I was watching from deep cover, you may believe!” averred Suzy, with conviction.
            “You best believe I’d have been in deep cover,” said Toots, hissing again.
            “He got Smarties too! He wasn’t happy. I think he marked the porch after they shut the door!”
            “Disgusting. We don’t do that!” said Toots. “Oh, sometimes Toms do, but for good reasons, of course,” said Toots, “such as warnings!”
            “OK, there was one more door banger, Toots. It was a little black thing, not human, or animal. It had a long tail that it twirled around and around. They asked its name, and the thing said ‘That’ was its name.”
            “How did That like its Smarties?” laughed Toots.
            “I don’t know! It kind of blew up in a puff of stinky black smoke and vanished right off the porch,” said Suzy. “And I’ll tell you what Toots, I think they were all the same creature! No, really! I think we both saw the same darn shapeshifter! They all seemed to originate from the same source somehow? It was like this shifty thing got onto our wavelength somehow and we both saw it!”
            “Aw, Suzy. That might be too weird. I don’t get it,” said Toots, who was getting pretty sleepy because it was nearly morning.
            “The weird thing about Crazy Door Banging Night, is we just don’t know. Sometimes it’s just kids, and sometimes it’s something else. But the important thing is that you and I and those two unimaginative cats, Willie and Sammie too, made it through the night alive!”
            “I guess someone was pulling our tails a bit, Suzy. But you’re right! All’s well, that ends well, and I hope to never see it again, in any guise!” said Toots.
            “No way!” said Suzy.
            And with some low-key hissing and purring transmission ended for Crazy Night.
            Suzy slipped out to the living room because she wanted to taste a Smartie and just see if it was as nasty as the writer said they were. She wasn’t impressed either. They were dry and crunchy and sort of sour. “Mrrp,” Suzy remarked, then went up to the back of the big chair to sleep.

What Will She Think of Next?

           One day, during the winter, there was a lot of snow on the ground, so that it looked quite festive in the Mt. BSNF, if one were inclined to see it that way. To some it would have looked like a Christmas card, or maybe a Hallmark movie. But, of course, Ramona was quite innocent of those associations. She thought it was a pretty, snowy day, and she felt like going for a walk and visiting her friends Thaga and Ooog.
            After making sure that Ralph, Twigg and the cats had a good solid breakfast, she gathered up Cherry, firmly, in her right arm, and in her left hand she carried a small bag of dry pitch lumps which Twigg had gathered from the tree trunks. It was a gift for Ooog. She thought he might find a use for some pitch.
            For someone of Ramona’s gait, it was a short, pleasant walk. Soon she had cleared the forest and was walking in brush and meadow land. As she approached her friends’ house the sun shone brilliantly on the deep snow. It made a pretty picture.
            When Ramona and Cherry came up to the porch doing that Sasquatch light step thing, Thaga, who had been watching, threw open the door. Ramona stomped the snow off of her feet and stepped into the warm old stone cottage.
            Faithful Maeve had been there earlier to warn of the upcoming visit.
            Ramona had something in mind to discuss with Thaga. It had been preying on her for a while.
            “Thaga,” she began, “I have been thinking.”
            “That’s good,” said Thaga. “You’re a good thinker, usually.” She looked at her friend with a big smile on her face.
            “No, I mean it,” said Ramona.
            “I think I want a dress,” she said. “You have dresses and skirts and sweaters, and I like them, Thaga. Why can’t I have a dress too?”
        “Oh, my,” said Thaga.
            “But you Hairless get all the pretty stuff!”
            “It’s not that simple,” sighed Thaga. “Sure, I have skirts and dresses, and I made them all myself too!”
            “Why couldn’t you make a dress for me?” wheedled Ramona, sounding something like her son.
            “I could, though drafting a pattern your size would be a feat!” giggled Thaga. “But the trouble is, that a dress is not just a dress, Ramona. It means something. If nothing else, it implies laundry. Clothing must be cared for.”
            “But all I want is the dress,” said Ramona, grabbing Cherry as she drifted by, and settling the babe into her lap. “I’m not asking to be initiated into the mysteries of Hairless culture.”
            “You know why us hairless types wear clothing? It’s because we’re too funny looking without it, and we get cold, or sunburnt, or chewed up by mosquitoes.
            “You’re already ‘dressed’,” she added.
            “But I feel so plain,” cried Ramona. “I’m the same every day!”
            “You’re naturally elegant, putting dresses on you would be as silly as dressing flowers or those pumas. It wouldn’t add anything. It would cover up your elegance.
            “I think the problem is in your mind, not on your body,” said sincere Thaga. “Remember when Ralph wore those jeans for a while? You thought it was ridiculous and that he was putting on airs! What would he say if you showed up in a big old dress on top of your lovely curly hair?”
            Ramona had to laugh. She hadn’t considered that. He might think that she was putting on airs, she had to admit. “But Thaga, what if he liked my dress?” asked Ramona.
            “Then you would have a complication to deal with in your idyllic life in the forest. One dress leads to other things. Other clothing items. What if your beautiful hair started to drop out? I don’t know if it would of course.
            “But then, how would you wash it? You would have to take it to the river and scrub it there. That implies soap or detergent. Where would you get that? Well, from me I suppose. Do you need more work?
            “How far do you want to go in being like us, are you sure it would be an improvement?”
            “I guess I was feeling envious, Thaga. I love your pretty flowery cloth!”
            “Oh, sweet dear Ramona, there is no reason to envy Mankind, female division,” laughed Thaga. “We have our joys and sorrows, but being naturally beautiful is not one of them for most of us, once youth has flown!
        “I see what the nub of this sudden desire is,” said Thaga.

            “You are so kind and wise,” murmured Ramona, a bit sadly.
            “I tell you what, sweetie, let’s go look at my scraps and big pieces of flowery cloth and we will start to make a new quilt. Surely Twigg and Cherry are both going to need quilts as they get older. You will see the beautiful cloth every time you look at or move the quilts. We can start now, and we can work together. Does that sound good?”
            “Yes. That makes sense,” agreed Ramona.
            So, that was just what they did. They looked all afternoon at Thaga’s fabric pieces and planned away a pleasant day.
            Ramona carried her daughter home through falling snow later, with her head all full of beautiful plans and designs, and she was comforted.

Happy Tuesday Open Thread

 

    Honestly, I shook the story box and it refused to cooperate. So, there you have it.

    So, I'm just wishing you all a very fine Tuesday, with all the best gifts that Tuesdays are famous for!

    Oh, the sunflowers? We were on the way to the blueberry ranch last September and came upon this impressive display of sunflowers by the small farm road.

    Willie and Suzy asked to have their greetings included today. So, Brrrrt! & Meow!

What An Odd Night!

 

            It was such a beautiful night. It was the kind of night that made people want to stay outside, no matter how late it got to be. It was chilly, but not frosty yet. There was some snow lying around under the trees, leftover from the first snow of the year.
            The moon was shining, and here and there its light could be seen on the forest floor. But a persistent wind was hustling a few clouds across the face of the moon once in a while, darkening the night intermittently. The scene seemed to hold a promise, but of what?
            A great gray owl floated silently through the clearing, examining the forest floor.
            Even after the dinner of roast wild turkey and some of that strange large squash, Ralph just didn’t feel drowsy. The night was calling, and he was hearing the call. Mysterious impressions drifted just beyond his consciousness.
            “What a night!” he thought. “I’m not sleepy at all!  I wonder if that squash does that? I’ll ask Thaga.”
            He was standing mostly in shadow watching the play of moonlight as it moved across the forest floor when, incredibly, he heard voices. “Who in the world would be out here in the middle of the night?” he asked himself in wonder. Just as a precaution, he became imperceptible to regular eyesight. He was intrigued.
            “This place looks haunted as heck,” said one youthful male voice.
            “Ben, I don’t like it,” said another.
            “Oh, come on! They say if you come out here on this night, you could see something pretty weird,” said Ben.
            A third voice said, “don’t mess it up by being a baby, Melvin!”
            “Easy for you to say, Karl. You don’t have any imagination at all,” said Melvin in a quiet whisper, as the three young men wandered into the Home Clearing from the direction of the two lane highway just a short walk through the forest.
            They were dressed all in dark clothing and hats, as if they imagined themselves to be very stealthy. Two of them were very white of face, which showed up just fine in the moonlight. The third, who seemed to be the one called Ben, was darker, and almost invisible.
            As Ralph watched, the owl came back. It flew over the boys' heads. In the next moment there was a small dying shriek a short distance away.
            “What was that?” cried Melvin.
            “Nothing,” said Karl, sniggering.
            “It was an owl. I’m out here with a chicken and an idiot,” said Ben. “An owl is not what we're looking for, is it?”
            “What are we looking for?” said Melvin, who was wondering how he had gotten himself into this excursion.
            “Proof. Once and for all,” said Ben in a hushed, dramatic voice. “I’d bet anything this is a Sasquatch camp, right here! That old Indian said it was somewhere up here, and I want to see them.”
            Ralph’s invisible eyebrows went up.
            “I wish we had some beer,” said Karl. “I’m bored.”
            “I don’t think we should be here,” said Melvin, rather forcefully for him. “What if they don’t want us here, barging around acting stupid?”
            “They? What they? There isn’t even a ghost out here,” said Karl.
            Karl wasn’t the only one getting bored. Ralph was tiring of this cornball drama being enacted so near his home, and his sleeping family. So, taking a cue from the kids, he began a low ghostly moan. He made it throb. It was almost subliminal. But it still got their attention. It felt, to them, like being hit with big soft waves of ominous warning.
            The boys froze in their places, uttering not a sound.
            He walked up near to the trio and screamed like the famous Banshee of Ireland. He decided to hit them with some odor too. It was pretty rank.  The boys retched.
            Seeing that those efforts seemed to be working nicely, Ralph made a sound like boulders rolling down a steep incline and getting closer and closer.  This was a new trick, and he had been wanting to try it out.
            Ben, who wanted proof, and Karl, who had no imagination, abandoned the whole idea and simply ran for the highway and Ben’s Ford, leaving Melvin there by himself.

         Seeing himself alone, he relaxed and looked all around at the big trees, the moonlight on the forest floor, and the scraps of leftover snow. The picture seemed to enchant him. He smiled at it all.
            “If you’re here, I’m not scared. I’m sorry we barged into your forest,” said Melvin.
            “It’s alright,” said Ralph, appearing rather gradually to give the kid time to adjust. “I’ve seen blockheads like that before and some of them were Forest Keepers. I could name a few that live right around here.” He smiled at the kid, hoping he truly wasn’t scared.
            “Wow! You’re real!” said Melvin.
            “So are you,” said Ralph, giggling. “Who knew?  We’re both real!"
            “Now you have seen the truth, and they ran away like babies, Melvin. How about that? But I tell you what.  I’m getting sleepy, so I’m going to send you home.  This works great. Just close your eyes Melvin and think of home, and you will be back before they hit the outskirts of Milltown.”
            So, Melvin did as he was told, still grinning and very happy, and Ralph sang a song of going home, in the second person, and in a couple of verses, he was alone again in the moonlight.
            He shook his big old head, laughed at the night’s business, and headed on home to bed, with still several hours before sunrise.

What Do Cats Think?

 

 

            I often wonder, when the cats watch me make light happen with a flick of my hand, what they think has just happened.

            Do they just accept it?  Humans have the power of light in their hands? In that case, we also have the power to make water appear. We bring forth food. We must possess great power in their minds surely.

            We disappear. We re-appear.

            We pay a great deal of attention to things that must look like nothing more than moving lights on a flat surface.

            Since Suzy is sitting here on the right side armrest of my chair, maybe I should ask her.

            “So, Suzy, would you like to comment? What do you think about lights appearing when I flip a switch?”

            “Oh,” says Suzy. “Are those connected? I  hadn’t noticed. Light comes and goes. I think you must be kidding me!”

            “Well, no. I wasn’t joking,” says I. “Do you not look for causation in life, dear?”

            She pauses a moment to consider, “I look for hazards. I try to stay way out of harm’s way! Life is so shifty-weird, anything could happen. Though, I must admit that so far, nothing really bad has happened. But it could!”

            “OK, sweetie, one more question,” I say.

            Rusty little meow from Suzy. I take that for assent.

            “What do you think I am doing when I push these buttons, and the lights change on the big flat surface I’m looking at?”

            “Oh! You’re playing! I know how to play too! You push the buttons, and it makes a nifty sound, and then the lights change. Sometimes, I like to watch the colored lights, just like you do!” says the kitty girl.

            “My best game is the hunting. But, mostly there isn’t anything to hunt,” she sighs.

            “Well,” I say, patting her little head, “I think your way of looking at things works pretty well. You are philosophical about that which you don’t understand, but you are also aware of your surroundings, which is a good thing. And you love to play. Play is a pretty good stand in for the hunt, huh honey?”

            She looks at me like, “why do you talk so much?”

            Then we just purr together for a while. It’s what she likes best.

In Honor Of Our Own "Green Man"

     Chapter Thirty Seven of the book I was editing yesterday.   I couldn't help but be reminded of the Foliage Faced Fellow. Myth may meet fantasy, but make reference to truth!

By Greenie himself!

              Dr. Geoff was sitting on an old style oaken office or library chair.  He was alone on stage. Oh, except for the one light shining toward him at a nice artistic angle.  He looked serious, kind, and academic.

          He put his hands on his blue-jeaned knees and looked intently out toward the audience. He didn’t know for sure if there was any audience, but there was that possibility. He smiled a measured, kindly smile, as if to encourage participation of a scholarly nature. But anyone could see that he would not smile upon unproven nonsense.
          When he looked to stage right, he noticed suddenly that there was another chair just like his. It was about a dozen feet from his own chair, facing the audience. He nodded in approval. But then a slight frown marred his brow. There seemed to be a very large, even brutal looking, form seated haphazardly on the other oaken chair. Dr. Geoff sat forward, attempting to better see who was there.
         What he saw was an enormous beast. It was perhaps eight feet tall and weighed many hundreds of pounds.  It had a pelt of deep brown fur, perhaps six inches long. So deeply set were the eyes, the Dr. Geoff couldn’t make them out in the dark face. He sat back in his chair, one eyebrow somewhat elevated. He did not express approval then
          Dr. Geoff noticed a strong odor of some feral funk, mixed with perhaps a scent of decay. He looked out toward the “audience” wondering if anyone else was aware of the stench filling his own experience. He crossed his arms over his chest.  Then he took a discreet peek at his phone. He frowned at the screen and put it away again.
          When he looked over at the other chair again, it seemed to him that the animal had taken a more normal posture in the chair, sitting rather like a man might, though this figure was much larger than a man. One of its paws was up by its chin and it seemed to be looking right back at the doctor. Dr. Geoff wasn’t used to being closely observed in this manner by a wild animal of any kind, let alone a very large and possibly dangerous one.
          He began to notice a plantlike note to the odor filling the stage. It was like crushed ferns and some other smell that he didn’t recognize, perhaps just the smell of disturbed earth. On top of that, the stage environment had changed a little. It was hard to see what exactly was different though. But there was some kind of brushy business going on all around the seated figure opposite the doctor, things that he hadn’t noticed before.
          He thought he heard some sort of vocalization from the other chair. A heavy huffing sound, surely not laughter? Could the beast be giggling? Animals don’t giggle, he assured himself. He had never read of animals giggling in any journal, anywhere.
         The doctor rose from his chair to get a closer look at the animal. The first thing he noticed stage right, was a lot of vegetation all over the floor, but it wasn’t like a normal floor. It was soft and yielding. The smell was stronger, but more pleasant and woodsy actually.  There was no other chair.  He wondered why he had thought there was another chair.
          The very large figure was sitting on what appeared to be a fallen cedar log of huge size.  An inquisitive looking Raven sat on the creature’s left shoulder. This was absolutely not possible thought Dr. Geoff.  We were just on stage in front of an audience of silent watchers, he said to himself in astonishment. Stunned, he took a few more steps. He stumbled a bit like he was crossing an unseen threshold.
          The stage disappeared behind Dr. Geoff like a door had closed silently.  Gentle light filled the forest clearing where the log lay. Lazy insect life shone in the sunlight and then disappeared in shadows. Round and round they flew. An unmistakable scent of resin and mold filled his scholarly nose. It was warm and drowsy there, dreamlike, but very solid too. The doctor could hear distant bird calls.

         “There’s lots of room up here on the log,” said the huge figure, with an encouraging smile and a wink.                 “Why don’t you hop up here and we’ll spin a yarn or two and get to know each other,” said Ralph, the most amiable of hosts in the Baker Snoqualmie National Forest.

          Speechless, but agreeably, the doctor made an athletic backward leap up onto Ralph’s cedar log. He looked around, taking careful note of everything. This was going to change everything, everything, he thought to himself, all of it. To the doctor’s credit he seemed to be more pleased than anything else he might have been in this situation.
          “When it gets a little later we can go see what Ramona has been making for dinner, we can sit around the fire and talk all night and you can meet the kid.  By the way, I have some beers tucked away down under this log where it’s cool.  Like a beer, doctor?” inquired Ralph. “In fact, I have some cigars too! Do you like a cigar, doctor?”
          “I like a cigar once in a while,” grinned Ralph. “They’re Cubans!”
          “Well, yes, I think I would like that,” said Geoff.  “Say, what did you say your name was?”
          “It’s Ralph. Didn’t start out that way, but it got that way!” Ralph shook his head in amazement and patted the doctor on the back with his large hand.
          “When it gets real late, I’ll show ya how to dance yourself home Geoff. It’ll be okay.”

The Green Man vs Ralph Open Thread

     Yesterday I received a text and photo from my granddaughter. She asked me if I thought this button resembled our friend Ralph. I said that I thought it did!

    Now, of course, it is a representation of The Green Man, a mythological figure who dances in and out of history and pre-history wearing several names.

    But then, I began to consider that The Green Man could be seen as a European manifestation of a similar figure.  It's fun to think about anyhow.

Foliate head on the famous 1589 Hofbräuhaus in Munich, Germany. Photo by Stephen Winick.

The Green Man

    The link above is to an article with more data than you probably ever wanted to know about that green guy.

Then there is always the Green Knight! 

One of the most famous Green Men, or foliate heads, is in the cathedral at Bamberg, Germany.

    But to rebut myself I must insist that Ralph and his people are real!  I'm not sure where to put The Green Man, but maybe he represents a European cousin?

    And then, of course, just because something is a myth doesn't mean that it's untrue!

    Opinions are vociferously welcomed. Please opine.

Reaching Out

 

🌊🤍💦

           It was this very day, well yesterday, and Suzy kept feeling like there was someone who wanted to talk.  But it didn’t seem like it was Toots this time. It felt like someone she didn’t know and who wasn’t very good at this interior conversation thing yet.

            But as you know, curiosity is the overarching character trait of these creatures. It is both a madness and a virtue. A cat must possess curiosity in order to do its duty, both as a hunter and a sort of caretaker of people. It is also curiosity that makes them shove things and toss things. Ah well.
            Therefore, she composed herself to listen and respond. She closed her eyes and opened her heart.
            “Hey!”, said the unknown voice. There were also some garbled transmissions.
            “I’m here,” said Suzy, purring intently.
            “It helps if you purr as loudly as you can,” added Suzy.
            “Oh, I’ll purr,” said the other, coming in better. It was like somebody had turned the volume up!
            “That’s better. Now, who are you?” purred Suzy.
            “My first name was Charley, even though I am a girl,” returned the voice. “Now, my lady calls me Nips. I think I would rather be Charley, if you don’t mind,” said Charley.
            “Where are you? You don’t seem terribly far away from me. I am near salt water and mountains. Charley seems like a good name,” said Suzy. “Though all these names are human inventions!
            “When I was small and in a little cage with Willie at the Seattle Feline Rescue, they called me something like Darcy! Darcy! What’s a Darcy?  I  had no idea,” laughed Suzy, remembering those days.  “They called my brother Fancy Lance! Can you imagine?” They both laughed as cats do, just by thinking funny thoughts.
            “I’m by a big river.  I know because she takes me walking along the river on a leash. The river is so big that I can’t see across it, and I see ships, she said those are ships, out in the water,” answered Charley. “I wonder if it’s the same water?”
            “Is it salty?” Suzy wondered.
            “It tastes like my water bowl almost, so I don’t think it’s salty,” said Charley.
            “Maybe it’s not the same water,” Suzy decided.
            “Were you born there? Do you know your mother? I barely remember mine. I was rescued out in the open in a field in Yakima, whatever that is.”
            “No. Something terrible happened to me. But I don’t understand it. When I was tiny a girl found me lying on a side walk. I was dirty and covered in fleas, Suzy! And I was starving. I would have died, but she brought me to Sam who saved me. He fed me and cleaned me and helped me grow strong until I was big enough to come to my lady. I was very lucky to be found!” Charley purred a happy but a little bit of a blue purr too.  It had been hard for her, and their two hearts understood that.
            “Hey Charley, I’m glad you lived,” said Suzy.
            “Sometimes I am grumpy,” said Charley.
            “That’s understandable,” said Suzy. “I am a little jumpy myself. Where we start seems to matter.
            “But how about this, would you like to know another cat, who is really far away and is my best friend? We could talk to her and then there would be three of us together.”
            “Yes. Please,” said Charley.
            “You know, the funny thing is, Toots has Sammie, who is all calm and easy. I have Willie, who is fat and thinks he’s funny.  Do you have another cat like that?”
            “Oh, yes, Suzy!  I have Mr. Baby Sir! Have you ever heard such a silly name? He is a big fluffy stupid goofball! He doesn’t give a rip for anything. You’d think the world was a swell and sweet place if you went by his attitude!” grumped Charley.
            “Oh, Charley! Let’s just ask Toots what she thinks about life, the universe and everything. She will have something to say!” said Suzy.
            So, they purred up Toots and put the question to her.
            After introductions and greetings, Toots said, “the funny thing is those sleepy happy cats have the best of the bargain. We might be having more fun if we could do some of that sleepy happy stuff. But it’s hard.
            “Maybe some day we three will learn to swing with the universe. Maybe we will be able to laugh at the things that used to make us jump or feel mean! A fine test of our nerves is coming up in just a few days isn’t it girls? The night of the banging of doors and the weird noises!” There were delicate shudders all around.
            “I have a good idea,” said Charley. “Why don’t we three join together during that night and see if we feel better together? Maybe we would be stronger that way.”
            “Yes. I think we would,” said fussy little Suzy.
            “Alright. Let’s,” said super wary Toots.
            It was decided then and there, well, in the virtual sense of “there!”
            So a fine plan was hit upon, and we can only wait to see how it all works out on the fateful day. But I suspect that together they will feel stronger. I think they will barely notice Crazy Night!

The Hunters Return Covered In Glory

 

🦃🧡🦃

 

            Ramona and Cherry spent a lazy day waiting for the hunters’ return. There isn’t a ton of housework to do in the Home Clearing. A few dishes. Burn the scraps and bits of detritus that blow in, after a little sweeping. Wash a pot and some bowls down at the river.  That’s about it. As she did her few  chores Cherry floated along behind her staying out of the way.
            Honestly, they were a bit lonely. Cherry didn’t talk much, so Ramona had no one to visit with. She would have been glad to see Thaga, or Constance. It would have been good to see her again. Now that she was married to Ferdy they didn’t see her much.
            The sun moved across the sky. Still they waited. The wind came around, but didn’t stay. It was a little chilly, so Ramona built up the fire. She put her iron grate over the fire in preparation for whatever the hunters caught. She sighed and was starting to feel a little sleepy.
            Just about then she heard someone, or several someones coming down the path. First Bob arrived, then Berry. Then Twigg ran to her, and finally Ralph himself appeared.  He was carrying two wild turkeys over one arm and a large orange squash-like thing in the other. Ramona had never seen anything like it.
            “What’s that?” said she.
            “I’m not sure,” said Ralph.
            “Where did you get it?” Ramona was awake now!
            “That’s a little bit of a long story,” said Ralph.
            “I thought we should walk along the tree line next to the meadow where the grass is tall and sometimes deer wander. I thought we might meet one there. But we didn’t see any deer today. We did see birds. There were pheasants, and lots of things like crows.
            “Anyway we walked a lot further than we usually go.  We stay pretty close to home here, so this was almost unknown territory.  It started to feel like we had sort of left our little world in a way. It was different there. On the horizon I could see houses and gardens. Then we saw more buildings and it started to look like a village, Ramona!  It was a place I had never been before and I’m not sure how that happened. If there was a portal, baby, it was a secret one.
            “Twigg and Bob and Berry seemed to be a little frightened or shy.  But we kept going anyhow. We felt dazed in a way. It was a funny scene.
            “We walked on until we came to a gravel road. There was a small park near the road. In the parking area there was one car. It was a square shaped thing painted dark orange. There was a lady sitting in the driver’s seat. There was just her. Nobody else. The window was rolled down and she was smoking and drinking a big paper cup of coffee.  I could smell both.
            “Next thing, she peeks around behind her car and sees all of us. She laughs and says, ‘I know you! I do! I’ve heard about you and your boy and your cats! Oh just a minute.  I have something for you to take home to Ramona!’
            “So, she hops out of the car, goes around to the back, opens the door back there and inside are about six of these big gourd things. She hauls the biggest one out and hands it to me, grinning all the while.”
            “She hugged me, mommy,” said Twigg. “And she petted Bob and Berry too! And they liked it.”
            “She hugged me too. It was a funny hug because she was so short. Not short for a Hairless, but much shorter than you! It was the funniest thing. I don’t know what to think.  I still felt like we had fallen out of our world somehow.
            “She said she thought that if we headed back the way we had come that we would probably find some turkeys in the grass and that the cats could probably catch them easily.  And you know what?  She was right!  When we got around half way back home, it started feel like home again and we saw a whole flock of turkeys.  The turkeys jumped up and began to run down into the meadow, but Berry and Bob were faster, and each caught one!  So I guess we will have turkey for dinner. I’ll clean them up down by the river in a minute.
            “What do you think about that?” said Ralph. He put the pumpkin, for of course it was a pumpkin, a huge one, down at Ramona’s feet.
            “I don’t know what to think, Ralph.  And yet here you all are with turkeys and that large orange vegetable,” said Ramona with her eyebrows up, laughing a little. “I suppose it’s edible, or the strange lady wouldn’t  have given it to you.”
            “I don’t know what else the Hairless do with these things,” said Ralph.
            “I wonder if they have some kind of festival, and they use these things for that?” said Ramona. “It’s hard to imagine, but people are strange.”
            “What in the world?” Ralph just laughed.
            So, Ramona cut the top off of the pumpkin. Finding a lot of strings and seeds inside, she pulled them out. It occurred to her that the seeds could be toasted and eaten so she saved those and threw the stringy stuff in her fire.
            When Ralph came back from the river with Twigg, he had two plucked and cleaned turkeys ready to cook. He looked at the pumpkin sitting there all cleaned out and said, “I wonder what it would be like if you cut some little holes, like in a design, in that thing, and put a little fire inside it, if it wouldn’t look pretty that way?”
            “I wonder if it would cook that way?” said Ramona.
            “You could sure try it,” said Ralph.
            So, Ramona cut some triangle shaped holes in the hollowed out pumpkin. Then she made a fire inside it with pinecones and small resinous sticks. It began to smell like a cooking vegetable around the fire circle.
            It took quite while for the turkeys, which were split in half, to roast over the fire. And during the time they were cooking it got dark. But the little fire in the pumpkin continued to burn, because Ramona had cut a little chimney hole in the lid.
            It lit up the Home Clearing with a festive lantern light.
            They all thought it was great. When it got soft and fell apart they ate it too, with their turkeys and had a very fine evening.
            But then, they always had a very fine evening in the Home Clearing in the Mt Baker Snoqualmie National Forest!

Not quite correct, but finding the right photo doesn't always happen!

About Hunting At Home And Abroad

 

            “Willie why are you always staring at that little place down there, that teeny tiny little bitty hole?” said Suzy one day when nothing much was happening to divert her attention.
             (I must insert that very old houses sometimes have funny little places in them.)
            “Well, Suzzo sister dear I’m a hunter and I am hunting,” he said.
            “Have you ever caught anything coming out of there?” said she. “I’ve never seen a mouse or even a spider come out.”
            “Not yet!  But it smells right, and I think there is some outside air coming up out of this tiny hole,” he said, squinting into the little opening where the porch addition had been attached to the kitchen many years before.
            “Do you remember that stupid mouse who ran out from under the fridge that time?” said Suzy. “I do mean that literally. That was a stupid mouse.”
            “Yeah, yeah, I do. She didn’t live long did she? Did you know that it’s almost always the girl mice or rats who come out into the open?  I wonder how the guys eat if they don’t forage,” said Willie informationally.
            “Are you worried that the dad mice will starve, Willie?”  Suzy laughed.
            “I just wonder.  Do the females bring food back to them? You know female lions do most of the hunting, like you I suppose.” He sat down by his little hunting place, loaf style, settling in for the long run.
            “Man, if I could just get outside long enough there would be some hunting!” said Suzy rather grimly. “I never got the chance, but I know Toots used to hunt outside and Sammie did too, until it got too dangerous where they are,” said Suzy.
            “While you’re smelling that little place, I think I will ask her about it.”
            Willie’s tail flipped back and forth dismissively, and his gaze never faltered. So Suzy went off to one of her thinking spots, to commune with Toots.
            “Toots, are you there?” Suzy purred as hard as she could. Soon she felt Toots purr in return. The signal was strong and good!
            “I guess so. Yeah. Yeah. I’m here,” said Toots, her gaze never faltered either. Since that Halloween discussion she was keeping her eyes on the street outside just in case. “I finally felt that it was wise to come out of hiding.”
            “Willie’s hunting by smelling a little tiny hole in the house, Toots,” laughed Suzy. “I think it would shock him if a mouse popped out there.  I don’t think he really believes in mice that much!”
            “Well Suzy, he’s a Tom….,” said Toots. “We understand that, right?
            “Do you miss the out-of-doors much Toots,” asked Suzy.
            “Yeah, I do. There was a time, many many times, when I would be silent as death with my eyes open on some lizard or snake as it sat in the sun. I barely breathed, I was so focused on the hunt, the kill!
            Really I’m not sure which was best, the stalking, the outsmarting of the prey or the actual kill. Because if you don’t want to eat the thing, when you kill it the fun is pretty much over. Then there is just a dead lizard at your paws.
            Out there, in the evening or the early morning I felt as if I were a small piece of everything. Not all of it was pleasant, but it was it and it was real. There were real dangers too, Suzy. Some animals I’m just not big enough to conquer or maybe even escape from. There were foxes! I even saw Coyote himself! I sure didn’t want to dance with him!
            But the wind told me stories Suzy. Dry and hot, or damp and stormy, it always had something to say to me, or Sammie.  She was there too. We always knew what was next because of what the wind said.”
            “Oh Toots, I have missed out on so much!” said Suzy, nearly weeping, because though if cats don’t truly weep, they do grieve.
            “But, Suzy, it was love that brought us indoors, we have to remember that. It took a while for me to understand and appreciate that it was love. We are provided for and sheltered and in the long run, we cats love rest, shelter and food. We are even sheltered here from our own random impulses! We love our people too, don’t we? And we are able to add something to their lives. Right? We add love.”
            “If you know it, then I know it, but part of me would like to be out there living the life of the primordial mother cat of all of us, just for a while,” sighed Suzy.
            “We always have that potential Suzy.  It will never leave us.  We are sheathed swords in a sense. But we are still swords! If needed I could catch rabbits and bring them home to him to cook. I would do that,” said Toots. “And in time, I came to see that I was still part of everything right in here!”
            “Alright, that’s better. I can understand that,” said Suzy.
            “I don’t think there is anything around here that anyone would like to cook,” laughed Suzy. “I’m trying to think how they would welcome a dead crow, or seagull, or rodent!  Or maybe a young raccoon! Nope! They wouldn't want that!” She was sort of enjoying a picture in her mind of a stuffed and roasted raccoon!
            “You’re right, they wouldn’t be happy to see that show up on the porch,” giggled Toots.
            “OK, if I don’t talk to you before Crazy Night, hang tough! Be strong! Hide! LOL! Now I’m going to go see if a giant rat has squeezed its way out of that tiny hole Willie is sniffing and that he has dispatched it like the killer he thinks he is!” said Suzy.
            “Alright,” laughed Toots, purring, “I hope we all survive the door banging beggars! Goodnight! Goodnight!”
            With that each cat went back to attending to local business at home as each knew best!