Sept. 08, 2007 - 19:29 MDT

NO CONUNDRUM

Starting out with something on the order of, �Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man�s father is my father�s son.� Gathers no moss for an entry.

Remembering my early days in the little two room house on the alley where I spent my early childhood, up to the age of 16.

I liked it in wintertime there as we could close off the bedroom and the main room would be toasty, summer times some times I would seek shade out of doors. That was back when all one had to do to cool off was stand in the shade. Now humidity is much higher all the time, shade doesn�t do all that much good.

I had no brother or sister, but we did have pets. Peggy, a wire haired fox terrier and over time, cats. Usually a female would be given to Mom and eventually more cats would be with us for a time.

I remember one time when Mom was running late she left a dresser drawer open and nobody else noticed that. When I got home I saw that the cat had a litter of kittens in that drawer and they were peacefully nursing so I let Mom handle the situation.

There were a few times that a litter of pups appeared as well. We found out later that Peggy had her own route in the neighborhood, where neighbors would feed her bits of things. With her pups she followed her route and the pups would get treats too. One neighbor told Mom how cute it was that Peggy took her kids with her.

It was hilarious when a litter of pups would precede a litter of kittens. The pups in comparison to the little kitties were giants, bodacious and fiesty. They�d maul the kitties, teasing and such, making misery for the felines.

Then the kitties would grow a bit, take a swipe at a dogs nose and hop up on something high. First use of a turntable in our house.

In the cold of the winter there were two scuttles of coal beside our coal range. Rather than make a trip out to the garbage can on the ashpit, Dad would lay scraps of food on top of the rear scuttle on top of the coal to dry, and then be burnt.

Whichever feline or canine little one would reach the adventurous stage of life, sooner or later the smell of food from the coal scuttle would tempt one to mount the scuttle to nose around. Of course the animals were not engineers and would manage to get on the tippy end of the scuttle, thus an avalanche of coal and four legger spilling across the floor. Only took once per animal, but was so funny.

I must have been about fourteen and we had only one cat, Bedelia a loving female. She would ride my shoulders around the neighborhood, how she could be comfortable draped around my neck, front end on one shoulder and rear on the other I could never understand. This went on for a long time, and might have gone on longer yet but for one thing. In the next block lived our ice man/coal man, Mr. Matson. He and Dad and Mom were friends and relations were friendly. One day Dad told me to go tell Mr. Matson, something, I remember not what, but dutifully I wandered over to Matson�s place, knocked on the door. Mr. Matson yanked open the door, putting on an act being a crotchety old man and hollering something terrible.

Poor Bedelia left my back wet and left a trail for as long as her bladder held out. Never again would she ride my shoulder.

One summer day Bedelia was out and about doing her cat thing and was chased by a police dog, she zoomed into the yard and up on a window sill, hissing and growling. I chased the dog away and attempted to comfort her, picking her up was not the thing to do with a terrified cat, and she bit me on the ball of thumb. After while she calmed down to the point of accepting skritching, purring all out. I did have a swollen thumb for a few days and a case of cat-bite fever from that.

Those were the days when dogs and cats didn�t need licenses and ran the neighborhoods free, which ours did. Always did get my nanny when she would bring her boyfriend to my window sill to do all that yowling they do in romancing. I finally began to carry a glass of water to put at my bedside and when the ruckus started, throwing the water through the screen caused an exodus..

Some time before we moved to our new house in East Denver, first Peggy turned up missing, never found. Then Bedelia as well. Dad and Mom told me there would be no pets in the new house, which hurt but I didn�t want the job of clean up after cat messes, so I didn�t complain too much. But I did and still do miss having a pet.

So, unsolved there is NO CONUNDRUM . . . . . . . . . . .

Blog