For A Little Break

For a little break in all the seriousness, a funny story:

ManPants and I were driving into our apartment complex a few weeks ago. It was sunset, so the shadows were long and tricky and the colors of the world a little distorted by the fading light.

“There’s a cat under that car!” I blurted out.

“There is? Where?”

“Under there, see?” It looked like a cat lying underneath a car with its white back to us.

We both got really excited.

We parked and immediately, both of us headed towards the cat. We are suckers for cats – we want some of our own but are too afraid of vet bills that we probably couldn’t pay – so anytime we see a cat outdoors, we do our best to pet it. So far, the only one in our neighborhood that has let us is a very friendly black cat who lives across the street.

But we approached it carefully, ManPants in the lead since he has a talent at convincing strange cats to not run away. We tiptoed, crouched low. We clicked our tongues and called “Here kitty, kitty!”

It didn’t move. Just as I was beginning to think we might actually be successful in petting it, ManPants turned around suddenly, laughing: “It’s a bag. It’s a white paper bag.”

And now back to your regularly-scheduled soul-searching.