Not Writing About COVID-19

It’s raining here in sunny Southern California. It started yesterday and my weather app (1Weather) says it’s going to be raining for the rest of the week. We’ll get the weekend off, then by the time you’re reading this (since I am trying to get this written *before* it’s due), it will possibly be raining again.

The cats are not happy. The dog isn’t, either, since he does have to go out in the wet to do his business. However, when not doing his business, TobyWan prefers to stay inside. It’s the cats who are suffering the most from this cruelest of developments.

My husband is mostly staying inside, thanks to the lockdown, house arrest, stay at home order. He is also trying to find the perfect way to say lockdown, house arrest, stay at home order. Stay at home order is too long. We are not in prison, nor are we under arrest, so neither lockdown or house arrest apply. He’s not usually that fussy about precise language, although I am, so this is an interesting turn of events. I’m good with lockdown in the metaphorical sense since we can still go on walks and go grocery shopping.

Back to the cats. As I explained in my debut post on this site, we have three. Sadie Cat, the old lady of nine years (at the top of the post), and the much younger, though no longer kittens, Xanax and Benzedrine. They all came into our house almost two years ago after our cat, Dorothy Parker died of old age. Parker, who was all too aptly named, would have no other cats before her. So, my husband insisted that when it came time to find her successor, we get a pair of bonded kittens. Unfortunately, when we went to the shelter, I walked past a cage and saw this large, lovely cat giving me the look that could turn you to stone, and remarked, “Oh, look! There’s Medusa.”

Well, if you name a cat in the shelter, you know you’re going home with it. And, as it turned out, Medusa actually had a name already – Sadie. But we sometimes call her Medusa. Or Psycho Sadie, since she will pick fights with the other cats and is trying to kill the dog.

Strangely enough, although Sadie prefers being outside the most, she seems less annoyed about the rain than the other two. Benzi (aka the Purr Bot for her trilling purr) has been on my desk getting in the way multiple times today and given me the glare. Xannie (also in the guise of the mild-mannered Puff) has the stronger personality and makes a point of getting in our faces when she wants something. She, however, is just hanging around the back door, then glaring at us when we open it and she does not want to go out.

By the way, we do live on a relatively quiet street and the cats are indoor/outdoor to keep the vermin away. It’s the most natural form of pest control and it really works.

Except when it’s raining and they can’t go outside.