Cats Laugh

"...my embroidery is bad enough to make a cat laugh," says Mercedes Lackey's character Talia in the book Arrow's Fall. (274).

Imagine all the cats you know, strolling, sitting, lolling about, all of them laughing. Mouths open, heads tilted, brow and jowl whiskers vibrating, all the cats laughing. Isn't that a grand notion?

I often laugh about cat antics. Last week one day our young, pale-ale-cat Yuengling jumped out the window I had opened to wash on the outside. She landed about half-a-story down, crouched for a moment, looked around as if momentarily surprised, then straightened, raised her tail, and walked away with all catly dignity as if to say, "Yes, I planned this."

This morning she brought an offering to the door, as she occasionally does. Sometimes it's a vole or mouse, sometimes its a cicada or a leaf. This morning it was an offshoot of a spider plant.

All summer the spider plants thrive outdoors. When I bring them in the cats play with them, leaf and shoot, and eat them, until by spring the plants are spindly and poor. So I no longer have more spider plants than I know what to do with. I will root and pot these leafy offerings the cat brings. This winter I will water my plants and think of cats laughing.