bday eve before

bday eve before

Monday, April 9, 2012

CANAL STREET KITTY


A story that takes place at Easter time and Passover both --- the story of a very sick cat whose curiosity and love of life sees him through

Iris got sick just as it was becoming spring in the cats’ first year in Brooklyn, just as they were all getting excited about winter being over.  They were planning on having lots of fun this summer.  Imogene was going to put Iris on a leash and they would go sit outside on the stoop with their neighbors.  Star, his sister, would absolutely not allow a leash to be put on her.  Star and Iris and Imogene had finally stopped moving.  They had lived in the same place for seven months now.  It seemed the bad times were over.  They loved their house and they were “almost” settled.  They even “almost” had curtains, or, at least, Imogene had the curtains “planned.”  Of course, everybody knew Imogene’s plans could take a long time to become reality. 

The three couldn’t believe their life and good luck.  They, suddenly, out of nowhere Iris got sick and even he was worried.  And, Imogene was beside herself.  Plans for the curtains, plans for everything, went out the very window the curtains might have gone on.

At first, Imogene packed the boy cat up in a turquoise and yellow gaudy plastic carrier and took him to the doctor.  They went on the bus.  Iris did not like going to the doctor’s much but he had to admit, he truly loved being outside again.  He did not like being poked at and examined and having shots at the doctor’s and he especially hated when a Labrador retriever or some other overfriendly dog rushed up to his cage.  There were also these jumpy little kids always wanting to poke their fingers through the turquoise and yellow carrier.  They too wanted to touch the little cat.  Iris did not know which was worse --- a large slobbering dog or a giggly little girl with sticky fingers.

Being sick was scary for him though he loved the smells of outdoors, even from the cheap carrier (it was the cheapest one Imogene could find, and everybody knew Imogene was cheap, well, she didn’t have a lotta extra money).   She actually was very generous and would buy gifts for everyone when she did have money but the cats had not known Imogene during that all too brief period in her life.

The air was beautiful to the little cat.  Spring smells were just beginning, smells of brand new leaves and flowers ready to burst through the ground and even some Irises, the flower for whom Iris was named when everyone still thought he was a girl.  Why humans worried about things like boys’ and girls’ names, Iris thought very strange.  Humans were such funny characters.   Iris only knew that he loved his name and liked even more hearing it called.

And, outside, there were a lot more smells than budding trees and flowers.  There were smells of garbage cans and trash, smells of bugs and other animals.  Oh, Iris loved those smells.  One of the best times he remembered with Imogene was when she sat him under her chair while she ate a burrito in a Mexican Cantina near the doctor’s office.  Oh, what smells delighted his quickly moving nose in that place --- beans and guacamole and beef and chicken and cheese.  Iris loved cheese, especially Parmesan --- but, hey, hold the peppers!
But then he got sicker and sicker.  Imogene stayed home from work, which was not good.  She stayed with Iris in the front room where she could watch him.  Star, came in the room with them sometimes but it was pretty boring for her because Iris was not up to chasing her around or batting her, or rolling over on his stomach trying to start a game.  At first, when Iris and Imogene began going to the doctor’s, Star did not miss them much.  She liked being alone in the apartment.  She loved the quiet.  She slept peacefully knowing that no little cat would sneak up from behind her and bat her tail.  But, as Iris got more and more sick, Star got more and more scared.  For though she did not always like him, though he could drive her crazy, she could not really imagine her life without the funny boy cat. 

Imogene even cried.  In the four years, the cats had lived with her; they had only seen her cry a few times.  She always said, “I don’t cry anymore, I haven’t cried in years.   I used to cry a lot, I was famous for my crying but if I cried every time something bad happened in my life, I’d be crying all day long.” 

Iris was torn in his feelings about Imogene crying over him.  He was worried about her and touched that she cried so much because he knew it meant that she loved him a whole lot but he was upset because Imogene’s crying kept getting him ALL WET!  

So, a few times during the days when Imogene was crying so hard, Iris gave Imogene “that look.”  It is a look humans love.  It isn’t easily described --- “that look” --- but all pets and their human companions know it well.  It’s a soft look of great emotion from the animal’s eyes.  It’s often accompanied by sweet noises and, or, sighing. And, though it’s sincere, the look, it can also sometimes result in the pet getting a better grade of food, maybe even a taste of tuna fish in spring water!  Humans melted with “the look” but when Iris gave the look to Imogene when he was so sick, it did not work the way it usually did.  Instead of making her happy, instead of making her say “ohhh” and “ahhh” and, maybe heading to the store for some good food, it only made Imogene cry harder all over him.  Iris was getting wetter and colder by the minute.

Then, one day, on Good Friday, two days before Easter Sunday, a serious sad day in some religions, Imogene packed Iris up once again in that god-forsaken ugly carrier and took him into Manhattan to a new doctor.  But, this time, instead of walking one block to wait for the bus, they walked five blocks towards the subway station with Imogene saying all the way --- “A-Train Kitty, A-Train Kitty.”   And, repeating over and over --- “Not many cats get to ride the “A” Train --- you’re so lucky, Iris.”   Imogene was trying to “psyche him up” as the old saying goes, to build up his enthusiasm for the subway because they were not a family who “did” cabs.   

Iris loved the “A” train.  Well, first of all he loved the subway station and all those horrible smells.  He didn’t like the noise of the subway; it scared him so terribly that he hid under a pale violet towel that Imogene had put in his carrier to make it feel softer.  And, when he sat up after the grinding and grating noises had ended, Imogene laughed and said ---“Oh, Iris you look like a nun with that towel over your head!”   Though, if truth be told, Imogene had never seen a nun with furry pointy ears sticking out of her habit and she’d seen a lot of nuns in her life.

Iris adored the subway and the subway station for all the reasons humans didn’t like it.  His little cat nose couldn’t get close enough to the holes in his carrier.  It was cold and clammy.  Wow --- he sniffed and snorted; he was all eyes and movement.  One paw hung through a hole in the carrier.  He was already beginning to not look like a poor sick little cat anymore, and they hadn’t even gotten to the doctor. 

He loved the dank, dark, scary filth of it.  He loved the smell of the trash receptacles.  He even thought he smelled a rat (probably) and that made his little cat heart sing.

On the subway itself, there were more glorious smells --- sticky smells from fallen food and spilled soft drinks and all he could see of people were their shoes.  He and Star loved people’s shoes.  Anytime anyone visited them, they automatically ran towards the visitors’ shoes and sniffed all those fabulous street smells.  Oh --- where shoes took people --- it was a joy to think about.

The movement of the subway scared Iris at first, but eventually its worst twists and turns ended and Imogene told Iris that after the first rough part, the “A” train gave a fast smooth ride into Manhattan.  She loved this subway she told him.  Although she admitted to loving the “Q” train more.  Humans, as Iris always thought, had some very strange ideas.

When they came up the subway steps near the new doctor’s office, the two were at Canal Street.  They had fifteen minutes before their appointment so they walked a bit on that Good Friday afternoon and then Imogene balanced Iris’ carrier on top of a newspaper box at Canal and West Broadway and there he watched the world go by.
And, boy did the world go by!  Depending on your disposition and your sense of humor, a visit to Canal Street could either kill you or cure you.

You either loved it or hated it; it was probably not a place many felt ‘in-between’ about.  Imogene loved Canal Street and she and Iris often felt the same about things.   They liked “different, unusual things.”  So, while many people in the world were already in Church for Good Friday or preparing to go to Synagogue for Friday evening services, Iris and Imogene watched in wonder as people streamed by, teemed by, rush or slowly ambled by ---- people of all kinds and colors and languages.   Horns honked and hot dog and souvlaki stands sent up odors to delight Iris’ now wiggly nose.   People talked and moved and laughed and gestured.  It felt like they were in the middle of a riot, a nice riot, which, in some ways, they were.

You could buy anything here.   You could buy an eel or a hubcap.  You could buy a roll of film and a bottle of perfume and a banana --- in the same place.  It was raucous, it was a ruckus and Iris heard different human languages from the one Imogene spoke, languages that made him remember the old city parking lot in south Philadelphia where he and Star had lived before Imogene took in the two cats.

It was another spring for the two and this time they were not moving again.  This time they had an apartment and were getting “settled” and would have curtains --- well, someday.   The sun was trying real hard to come through the big puffy clouds and warm them as they stood on that magic corner on that Good Friday and Passover weekend.  The boy cat pushed his nose as hard as he could against carrier to get closer to the world --- his eyes now alive with the excitement and wonder of it all.

 And Imogene knew right then that Iris’ life force would pull him through this illness.  And, though the two were neither in a Church or Synagogue, they stood there side-by-side on that early spring afternoon and worshipped. 

Imogene smiled and nodded and started breathing easier.  Iris sniffed and moved his head from side to side to see better.  He put his paw out through the carrier again --- the better to touch life.

Iris and Imogene were full of awe that sacred Friday afternoon. 
And, worshipped in their own way on that corner.

They worshipped by loving the life --- as it whirled and swept around them.

MPKane, for Easter, Passover, 2012

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

KATIE’S BIRTHDAY


 
Katie Kane, a feline, turned six today, well I made up her birthday because we just knew her approximate age when she came --- 9 months. 
I put her birthday on March 19, St. Joseph’s Day as he was a gentle man, hard-working, humble, seemingly most kind and I always felt he got short shrift in the publicity department of the Catholic Church.
I can still see her the first night I took her in as a foster over the Christmas holiday.  She was so terrified when I took her out of her carrier, her beautiful face read ‘fear.’
Then, the next I saw her, she was on a really cold window sill, again looking terrified but so beautiful (I had not really seen her at the foster agency, there were rows and rows of cats).  She had tabby markings which I always love interlaced with orange, a white breast and golden eyes. Behind and below this gorgeous creature, were Christmas lights from the yards of my Brooklyn neighbors.  I will never forget her that first evening with the glow of tree lights behind her.  But, afterwards she would hide for 11 days.  We never did get a tree that year.
In late January, I wrote a letter that I would give the agency when I took her back.  I felt that she needed someone around more, I was working out of the house a lot then; she, maybe. needed a family, not just one person.  But, I never delivered either the letter or the cat.  Instead I went into Manhattan one late Sunday afternoon, paid a small fee and came home with a free bag IAMS cat food they awarded me upon her official adoption.
What a change over the years --- sometimes I wish she were less affectionate when I’m busy or want to sleep and she comes up beside me to get petted.  But, not really.  She purrs now, she didn’t for the longest time.  She lets you know what she wants; she’s playful and mischievous in her play.  She pushes various balls around the floor and has lost two red clown noses that she adored over and over again.  I loved my first clown nose and still have no idea how she got it off that shelf.
She is scrumptious, gorgeous, relaxed, sometimes a little too relaxed --- she lies on her back showing her whole snowy white stomach with her feet up in the air --- open and vulnerable.  Her paws have the palest of pink pads. 
Mostly, Katie loves her windows looking down over different parts of Brooklyn.  She patrols the street in front and gets upset with the sweepers and scampers off.  In the very early morning, she is always at a side window looking east towards Prospect Park.  She looks out over yards full of plants and flowers while birds chirp up a storm. She is silent and meditative early morning and hardly notices me when I walk by. 
She seems totally in touch with the new day, with nature, the sunrise and the glorious quiet and as she turns towards me, she hands it over to me --- THE SACRED GIFT OF ANOTHER MORNING.

MPKane as read at Bodega Wine Bar, Sunday, April 01, 2012 to a brilliant and responsive audience.
 
MPKane as read at Bodega Wine Bar, Sunday, April 01, 2012 to a brilliant and responsive audience.