I'm sitting at my desk working on my dissertation proposal, and there is a small bag of marshmallows sitting on the desktop. Sasha, my DMH tortie and all-around glamour cat, hops up on the desk to see what's what. Purr, headbonk, putter around the desktop to find the optimum comfort spot under the 100W desk lamp. Suddenly Sasha sees the bag of marshmallows and starts pawing at it. Usually this means she is playing (she likes the sound the plastic makes when she paws it) but now she's trying to get her head into the bag. Hmm, I think -- could Sasha the finicky, who usually refuses all human food, be interested in marshmallows? So I pull one out and put it on the (dark wood) desktop, where it sits looking remarkably like a fuzzy mouse.

Looking at Sasha, I am amazed to see that she is crouched to pounce, eyes dilated, mouth open and making that little ack-ack sound that she usually reserves for sparrows in the lilac bushes outside the window. Crouch.. butt-wiggle... POUNCE! She sinks in her fangs.

It is clear that the marshmallow never saw this coming. Sasha sits absolutely still for a moment, mouth full of marshmallow, waiting for a reaction. Nothing. With a little growl she shakes it, to make sure it's dead, tosses it gently into the air a little, and lets it fall to the desktop. Now what?

Pinning it down with one enormous paw (for a small cat, Sasha has very big furry feet), she starts to lick it gently. Lick, lick, pick it up, shake it a little, drop it, lick fluff off paw. Pick it up again, chew a little, drop it again. You can hear her purring in the next room. Pretty soon there are sticky little spots of marshmallow fluff all over the desktop and one very sad-looking marshmallow crouching on the mousepad. Sasha moves in for the kill...

Oops. Now I'm going to have to reprint my proposal. I've returned slightly mangled papers to my students before ("Sorry, my cat ate your homework") but I don't think my committee will like to read this version: 11 pages plus one marshmallow.

Actually, make that 5/8 of a marshmallow.

Copyright © Kate Alexandra Lingley
April 8, 2000

Read Kate's story: Insect Disposal