A big day today, especially for mama, but also for an awful lot of other people in the world, including an ex-wife, two kids and all their kids and more because my papa was born on this day a few years ago, and if he hadn’t been born, I would not be enjoying my Felix cat vittles right this minute or playing the String Game with him for which he has the patience of Job, whoever that is, but he’s got it, and the world would definitely not be the world it is today without his presence in it. I would not be rubbed so sweetly while he’s watching Totti sink one into the net from a gazillion yards away (today there is a game–a partita in Italian, and I hope the Roma wins but I really hope papa does not let loose that howl when they score and I leap straight into the air thinking we are being attacked by pit bulls!), and if he had not been born, I don’t know what any of us would do for a fair arbiter when needed, a listening mind and kind heart when mama emotes like a crazed weasel over something (the economy, North Korea, education for women in the middle east, ordering the right cat litter three times and having it show up in the store as RABBIT PELLETS, etc–things like that). I like to think of papa as a kind of human valium for when all those around him are losing their heads and he stays cool as a you know what and brings back reality to situations that often look like a psychedelic bad dream.
That’s my papa.
I wish all kitties would have such a person in their lives and they would never lack for love and affection and kindness and attention and thoughtfulness and fairness and good cat food.
If I could sing, I would, but instead I sent one of those kitty chorus Bluemountain cards that I just love–one, two, all together now to the tune of Happy Birthday: myow, myow, myow, myow–myow myow. Myow, myow, myow, myow–myow myow. Myow, myow, MYOW, MYOW, dear papa–Myow, myow, myow, myow, myow………..MYOW!!!!
