Buddy the Gourd!

Tonight I Sat in Gary\'s Box

January 19, 2006

So, what's going on with me? I've been pretty quiet lately. Not for a lack of something going on. I've been doing more than looking out the window and napping. I've had many moments of deep incisive thought. I've had brilliant clear visions. I've had moments of great enjoyment, occurrences and activities proceeded left and right. I just forgot to write about them. Yes.

Today, though, finally today there was something great enough to move me to the keyboard. I sat in Gary's box! "Who's Gary?", you say, and rightly enough because I haven't mentioned him before. And actually, I guess you could say that Gary's pretty big news.

Frances and I have been pretty happy. I would sit on her lap and meet her at the door every evening when she returned from that job of hers. But there were a few problems. I got bored every once in a while and would act out a little, knocking the remote control for the TV on the floor, that sort of thing.

One Saturday morning, Frances went out into the world to go out and get those bags full of stuff. Food, paper products, miscellaneous shiny things and she returned with Gary. He was pretty little. If I remember correctly, I think that Frances said he was only three months old.

I was suspicious right away. Frances kept Gary out of my path for a while. He spent his first hours here out on the porch. Then he was allowed in the spare bedroom. Then Frances put him somewhere else and put me in the bedroom so I could get to know him by his scent. H'mmm. I wasn't sure.

For the first few nights, Frances kept Gary in the guest room. I think she was afraid of what I might do.

Then one day Frances came home from work. I met her at the door, but was not purring as usual. I just made this little clicking sound. I could tell, Frances thought I was mad at her. How could I tell her I wasn't feeling well? In a few days she figured it out. It was so obvious.

I sat motionless. I didn't eat. Me, Smuf, I wasn't hungry!!! My breathing was labored. Frances took me to the vet. The doctor who looked me over didn't seem very smart. He seemed like a nice guy, but he didn't have any ideas but told Frances to take me to the emergency vet if I didn't get any better.

We came home together and I felt just awful. By now little Gary had the run of the house. But he didn't run. He sat right next to me. I probably had three or four really bad days where I didn't move. He could have teased me. No, Gary, sat by me all that time. When Frances had to leave the house he stayed by me.

It was then during my delirium that I decided that I had a friend in Gary -- that I loved him!!!

Of course when I recovered, well I wasn't feeling that crazy about him. Well, okay I'd have to stop and lick his head when I saw him, but, well we still had to settle up our territory, but he was my friend, we were friends.

I've been really happy having Gary around. We hang out all day sometime in our separate corners, sometime together. We chase each other around. He does this thing where he runs behind the bathroom door and sticks his paw out underneath and I lunge for it. It's great fun.

He's kind of quirky. He likes to eat newspaper and he has this little stiff piece of paper that he loves. He carries it around the house in his mouth and stops to play with it. But after all he's just a kid.

There's something else funny that he does. I don't remember if I've mentioned this before but Frances has this mess of papers in the house that she is always trying to clear up. As part of the process she put this plastic bin full of papers on the kitchen counter. Gary has taken to sitting in the bin while Frances stands by the counter working at her computer. It doesn't seem very comfortable to me. He rests his head on a brown paper bag with AA batteries inside.

So now perhaps you understand my story. Tonight I was feeling quirky myself. So I jumped on the kitchen counter and sat in Gary's box. I didn't lie down, there wasn't room for me. I just sat there, for about five minutes.

This annoyed Gary to no end. He jumped on the counter and started chewing on yesterday's newspaper that was sitting there too.

But I jumped out. We're all happy now sitting in the living room. There's a cold wind outside and of course it's dark, but there are enough comfortable soft places for all of us to sit. Yes, we're very happy.

- Posted by Smuf at 9:13 PM