he woke in the morning to the
smellthe taste of potato leek soup then he smelled something else in
it too oysters which made sense he had just returned
from Willapa Bay Washington with a case of fresh oysters Baby! Dinner was going to be a feast
oopening his eyeshe felt their weight their wandering helter skelter across the bed and his blanketed body his five ferals nineyear old indie twoyear old october and
her three kittens shy leftie and bomber born mid-March
october was only in bed to
encourage him to get out of bed and feed her breakfast and it wasnt until she came in that he would
finally get up
he relished being a slow riserwaking when he woke without alarms -- his alarming
awakenings were behind him – but she could be ornery if she wasnt fed on her timeclock
her dicktate as a queen would should be
all eyes were on him
he eyeballed them back
smiled
then he
smacked his lipswhich put a spark in their spines FUD theyd spent enough time with himdespite not
knowing English that his lip-smacking informed them of food
yet another pleasure he
relished as he relished good meals
spirits a cigar a hot shower a wonderful
piece of ass he
liked to think the timethe years he spent in the gym made him a nice piece of
ass too the cats leapt off the bed
anticipating their breakfast and rushed up the hall to the kitchen where hed
feed october and the kittens he fed
indie separately in the bathroom young
cats dont respect age theyd knock indie
off his pins if he got between them and his food
he made his bed
slipped sweatpants and shirt over
his nakedness
relieved his bladder
then fixing plates of wetfood in the kitchen he
herded the four kitkats in a line as they ate he placed
dryfood in shallow bowls with an old tin cup and then stoled into the bathroom
where indie was fixed waiting on his breakfast
he
closed the door behind him as he left
returning to the kitchen over the
munching bodies he prepared two more wetplates refilled the tin cup with kibble
and then headed out through the front door through the screen door to feed his
outdoor ferals four bigfoot hed been feeding him seven years since he first showed wee five years since she arrived Robert one year he was no Robert Redford he kept telling october but she beat it out of the house one night as
he was coming in and Robert knocked her up bomber definitely informed who his daddy was Robert and bomber bright orange tabbies except that Roberts tail had been cut off
threefourinches off his rump his right
ear mangled Robert was suspicious of
human beings to his core
last but not
least two months ago ashe
he set the wetplates down on the porch
railing so he could feed ashe kibble he
left a shallow bowl to the left of the two steps down off the porch for
her if he didnt feed her first shed go
through anybodyanything to get chow she
was young and hungry
with ashe occupied he fed Robert
to the right of the steps in another shallow bowl
then back on the porch he took
the wetplates from the railing and fed bigfoot and wee he separated them with an old fruit
bushel as they ate the wetfood he placed
kibble in bowls of their own beside them
done
his pets fed first
now he could tend to himself
once inside the house he turned to
admire ashe and Robert
like great public buildings in great cities across the world before the entrances of great libraries he too had lions at either side of his vestibule just like those before The Art Institute of
Chicago
they had nothing
on him
and
later that day he was making and having
potato leek oyster soup
all was as right as could be
expected
one could say
that the world was his oyster
0947, Monday,
25 11. 19
1003, Twosday,
26 11. 19
