(Mama and aunt and cousins singing “Love is Here To Stay” — which it is, especially for me…)
(An irresistible tail…)
Mama is dying to see her aunt in Arkansas. Likewise, the aunt’s two sisters, a brother and mama’s cousins…most the town, in fact! I don’t know why they can’t take ME there where I have heard that one of the main staples is CATFISH (aptly named) fried in corn meal and right now I have saliva dripping from my whiskers just thinking about those golden, crispy filets of fish with a nice tartar sauce, or only plain with lemon. Slurp, slurp!
It seems to me that without me on trips, mama and papa can’t really do anything of worth with any finesse or knowledge of what the experience COULD have been with ME along.
Probably the same with families with kids–except the kids make so much noise and ask when they can stop and pee and where are we now and when will we get there, whereas I, Loulou, would never ask such silly questions and I can hold my pee for hours on end, as a good kitty should. If you’ve ever travelled with a DOG, you’ll know how easy it is with a kitty like me.
So off they go again to the wilds of the Arkansas woods and hills and fields, through green, green countryside and lush meadows of wild flowers, the car full of fortifications (Arkansas is a dry state…whatever that means but I think it means there’s not a lot of booze around or maybe milk for kitties) and focaccia (whatever that is) and great joy at seeing the aunts and cousins in their native habitat.
These aunts are pretty special, if you ask me, with the empha’sis (haha) on “pretty.” Mama showed me this picture of them and I said, “WHAT? They are HOW OLD?” and then we dropped the subject because mama is from Texas and she says that peoples’ ages are “nobody’s damned business unless they wish to tell you themselves.” And you NEVER tell woman her stockings are crooked, because she might not be WEARIN’ ANY! Papa’s papa did this once. With the empha’sis on once.
Now, back to aunts. Aunts are those very special people who seem to forgive all and judge nothing and love to laugh and eat and drink and make merry. I have several aunts, Anne and Lala and Nannie and Annie and Kate and Jane and Laura and Carol and Dolly and more, and they NEVER tell me I’m too fat or thin or that I should or shouldn’t do this or that. (Also because they know a kitty can just walk right out the door, the same door it came in, and never come back, if it wants to.)
So take a look at these doozies (NOT floozies) and see if you think it wouldn’t be a barrel of monkeys just being in their presence!
And I just know that they’re planning to pack up a little catfish picnic to take back to France, just for me…
