The Cat's Meow

The other day, we went for a six-mile jog /walk/crawl. Keri and Taco were fine—I was the one who could hardly move by the time we got back. Because I didn’t want to get my good shoes all muddy, I'd worn my old ”piece of junk” pair—also called a “ten minutes in these things and my feet are screaming” pair. By the time we got back home, my feet were doing just that--screaming. The next morning, my feet still ached, my ankles were stiff, and I had blisters. My entire body joined in on the “woe is me” chorus. Every muscle in my body was quite annoyed with me and let me know about it whenever I so much as moved.

But the shoe-fiasco aside, we had a WONDERFUL time on our walk. The birds were out in force. We saw Canadian geese and trumpet swans flying overhead. I love watching the swans. They remind me of giraffe--a picture of grace and beauty in what looks like a disproportioned body. There was also a sandpiper near the road, as well as a slew of other birds flitting around the trees. What with all the honks and chirps and tweedles and twaddles and twitters, we’ve got a perpetual orchestra going on around these parts. They don’t even slow down at night--maybe because the sky never gets black, but it just gets darker blue like denim, so they don’t realize they are supposed to sleep. I love it!

But there are some animals that are never seen here--and I’m not talking about the obvious tropical variety. I’m talking about basic things--like snakes. Snakes just don’t exist in Alaska. In fact, no reptiles do. That is something I look at as being a big plus. It almost makes up for the frigid weather.

Trying to describe a snake to the locals is a real challenge, because there is no frame of reference. You can’t say, “it feels like...” or “it looks like...” or even “it sounds like...” There is nothing in their world that is remotely similar to a snake.

Another thing that can’t be found--at least out in the bush--is the good-old-fashioned housecat. They are unheard of. A while back, during basketball practice, a crowd gathered on the steps at the side of the gym. (Our bleachers here consist of three wall-to-wall steps leading down onto the gym floor.) The group was all excited about something, so Taco went over to check it out. There, in the middle of the ruckus was a visitor from Anchorage, holding a Siamese cat. The kids had never seen anything like it. They were all talking at once.

“It must be a small dog!” “Then why does it look so funny?” “It doesn’t sound like a dog.” “Why does it have such a long tail?” “What is it? What is it?” “Can you eat it?”...

One of the kids made the mistake of trying to touch the thing but ended up kind of bonking it on the head, and the cat struck out at him in true Siamese fashion. The visitor just grinned.

Taco watched for a moment and said, “It’s a cat.”

Immediately, there was a flurry of questions. “What’s a cat?” “How do you know? Have you ever seen one before?” “Why does it sound so funny?” “Why is it so mean?”

Taco tried to explain about cats, but it just brought up more questions.

Finally he said, “A cat is like a really small lynx that you keep as a pet.”

There was a chorus of “Awwww!” with grins and head nods.

THAT was something they understood.