….of Danger!
We are gathered together in our official meeting place, Momma’s bed of course, with Ruby and we ask Momma … where is Clem? I mean we don’t keep daily diaries but it seemed he hadn’t been home in a long time…definitely a month, maybe longer…sometime in August or was it July…no, it was August, when Itty Bitty was on Life Support …
When we spent long endless days, waiting for you to come home from the hospital, Momma…but no blame, really, no blame!
Momma tried to make light of Clem the No Show…where does a light go, when it goes out….but she could see we weren’t buying what she was selling…this was, like serious…should we set up a Clem Kadiddle-Hopper Alert like poor little puppy Sophie….Had she ever got home? Only God knows…
It wasn’t that simple, explained Momma. Sure we had lots of pictures we could bang up on telephone and hydro poles
(like who we ask. put up the Moose Alerts saying ‘You’ll Miss Us When We’re Gone’… ‘Gone Where, Momma?’ I asked…I never saw a moose, not even a deer, in our suburban metropolis). Clem was a feral and like a Secret Agent Cat ‘To everyone he meets he stays a stranger’ …. He would conceal himself, hiding in thick foliage, up a tree, under bushes, or behind decks, as he spied with his little eyes.
Still, it seemed that invisible lines had mapped out a Safe Zone on our front bench and steps, where Clem could catch the rays or wait for Momma or his Wonder Boy to open the front door under the benevolent gaze of Bad Boy Andy Cat or Diva Calico Gen Cat. Once inside it was all a neutral territory, patrolled by Momma and Jakita who tolerated no skirmishes. In full appreciation, Clem would sniff kiss Senorita Jakita and ignore Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte Cat.
But that was then.. this is now…what gives?
What we do know…every time we saw Clem, he was more emancipated. Yet he ate less…and then could not be convinced to linger…no, it was eat, bolt to the door to be let out, ears back, tail twitching.
What we don’t know…is Clem teasing us? Has he got some lofty promotion, making him Chairman of the Board of Stray Cats… or even worse…has Clem pledged Allegiance to another Two Footed Family…. For like a Secret Agent…
There’s a cat who leads a life of danger… To everyone he meets he stays a stranger…With every move he makes…Another chance he plays… So odds are he won’t live to see tomorrow. (Paraphrase Johnny Rivers)
We are waiting Clem Ka-Diddle-Hopper…Come home, come home…Ye who are weary…come home.
