On the “rare” occasion I am late for work. No matter how early I get up, or how late I awake, I arrive at my destination late. I have resolved that my cats are entirely to blame for this. Here is the scenario this morning:

I got up a little later than usual, but reconciled this by cutting my 15-20 minute shower down to 5 minutes (this is no mean feat for a person with long hair! Quite confident, by this stage, that I will be on time today, I quickly feed the dog and move the chickens from the paddock into another part of the garden. By this stage my husband, Neil, is in a mild panic. “We've gotta go Dewi... hurry!!”. Consequently I forgo combing my hair and tie into a messy ponytail(I'll add at this point that I work in a laboratory and so presentation is of no big consequence). I forgo putting my socks on (this I can do later).

We race to the car and, much to my surprise, it seems probable that we will make it to our relevant work places in the nick-of-time. As I am putting on my seatbelt I notice Vincent. So sleek and beautiful. Lying under a shrub. The wind blowing lightly through his fur and an expression on his sweet little face saying.... “PET ME!”.

I try to resist... but I can't. I tell my husband I won't be long, race over to my beautiful, fuzzy cat. Give him kisses and cuddles and tell him to look after himself and the other pets while I'm away. I tell him that I will miss him, and... well, I would have told him more if it weren't for Neil beeping frantically on the car horn, giving me the look of death. I part, with great difficulty from Vinnie and race off in the car like a maniac. But it is too late... we will both be late.

So you see I can hardly be blamed for my tardiness. If only my cats would stop looking so adorable. I can just picture Neil, explaining to his boss, “Sorry I'm late but... my wife... well, we have adorable cats”.

P.S. I must confess that I tell a lie. I don't actually WORK in a lab. But, as a PhD student, I am expected to be doing lab work from 9 ‘till 5, Mon – Fri, conducting all sorts of wicked and wonderful experiments. So in essence it is like work... without a decent pay cheque.

Copyright © Dewi Williams
December 1, 2000