Bonita

April 15 had passed and I finally was ready to tackle all the paperwork that had piled up while I was busy with taxes. I spread it all out on the kitchen table and organized it into logical piles, settling down to listen to a soap opera while I worked. Then Bonita jumped onto the table. Usually she just lies down on my work, I get up and make a cup of tea, she loses interest and leaves, and I resume work. No problem. But her need this time, whatever it was for, was more urgent and she went into Phase II. This is when she begins furiously "digging" at newspaper magazine, bare floor, logical piles of paperwork, anything handy. Her claws aren't out, she does no harm, but it sure looks as though she's venting. I calmly sat that out, but when she turned around, backed up to me, lifted her tail, and started quivering her hindquarters, I dived for the floor, in the process knocking over the chair and, with my hand thrown up for defense, upsetting a crock of wooden spoons, which came clattering down around me. From the corner of my eye I could see Bonita's tail disappearing around the door jamb and above me, a white tornado of bills, checks, stamps, and notepaper.

When the last spoon had bounced and the last paper silently drifted to the floor, I unfolded myself from under the table and surveyed the damage. I was completely dry, as were the papers. She had not sprayed. But as I reorganized I remembered having watched from the kitchen window as both Bonita and her predecessor, another female, backed up to a shrub and shivered their timbers. But don't cats, male OR female, spray only inanimate objects, to mark their territory? Wasn't Bonita's behavior inappropriate, if not downright, well, pointed? Of course, Bonita IS a black cat, with a few white hairs, and in the country you do hear very interesting rumors about cats and skunks...

Copyright © Lynda Goldsmith
May 11, 2000