The Cat Leash
Yesterday, my bookshelves arrived.
I was excited all morning as I waited, thinking about my favorite line from Lewis Carroll’s “The Jabberwocky” (which ranks among the most frightening literary creatures I can think of, along with the Nazgul, the Dementors, and It): “Oh, frabjous joy! Calloo, callay!”
My children’s/young adult and comic books sections, especially, had been exploding off the shelves. Fiction was also untidy, though it helped that I could double-park those books, given the nature of the shelves they were on. I’d been trying for years to curb my book-buying habit, out of deference to my economist husband, who feels like there is no room for his potential book purchases (true) and that my books take up an inordinate amount of apartment space (also true).
When the bookshelves arrived, I began transferring some books from old shelves, and discovered something stuffed behind Renaissance drama: a cat leash.
This is the remnant of a failed experiment. We tried to teach our cat Sophie how to walk on a leash. Sophie’s a sweet kitty, but she’s got a wild side to her. She’ll crawl on your lap whenever possible, but pick her up and she’ll try to claw out your eyes. She did not take well to the full-body harness. She slunk around the apartment like she was afraid of her own skin. I took her outside in my arms, and she was so frightened that she actually clung to me (she also peed all over me). My husband and I brought her to a little cooperative garden by our apartment, and Sophie promptly hid underneath a bench and refused to come out.
I looked at the leash, and threw it away.
Then, delighted with having more shelf space, I ordered the entire run of the Sandman trade paperbacks (I have the original floppies in my parents’ home in Illinois, but they’re not as convenient to read).
There are some things you cannot change.
My cat, Gri Gri, wants me to tell you that cat leashes are best LEFT behind the Renaissance drama. Trying to walk a cat on a leash IS a Renaissance drama. Did you know that I tltled one of my drawings “Jabberwocky”? You could write an entire dissertation on that particular Teniel illustration. Male? Female? As for Sandman, I need him because I can’t sleep. However, my favorite studio listening is Neil Gaiman reading his own work. So far, I’ve listened to Neverwhere and Stardust. Happy reading.
Saffron did the same thing with her kitty leash! Walked low to the ground like she was in a straight jacket and made much of trying to get up onto the chair but being held back by the awful contraption. It was quite humorous for a few minutes, until I began to feel that the laughter was rather one-sided. Outside also clung to me and hid her little face in my armpit. No more cat-leash.