Thursday, May 17, 2007

Furnishings

It’s a relief that most cats don’t speak English.

Alex has a pet cat – it’s male, four years old, black and white, a bit overweight and is called Jim. As Alex has had Jim since kittenhood, the cat is at ease with the boy's rough-and-tumble treat-cat-like-a-piece-of-furniture manner.

Yesterday morning:

Jim is restful, curled up on a chair in the living room. Looking tired, Alex aimlessly wanders into the room. He approaches Jim, drops to his knees and lays his head on the cat. Jim is unfazed by this. They remain like this for about 30 seconds, then Alex lifts his head, looks at Jim, then turns to me.

Alex: Shane, you know when Jim dies?
Shane: Mm?
Alex: Well, what we could do is cut him down the middle and take out all of his guts and stuff, then, put all soft stuff – like cushions – inside of him, and then put a zip up the middle, and he can be my pillow.
Shane: (frozen by this image)
Alex: What do you think?
Shane: Well, I think it’ll be a long time before he dies, cos he’s quite young isn’t he?
Alex: Mm, but he might get hit by a car or something.
Shane: Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.
Alex: Mm (laughs), a pillow with a Jim-face – cute!

Last night, I did not relax until the pillows had been removed from the bed.

3 comments:

OldHorsetailSnake said...

I am thinking this would be the best kind of cat: Warm, soft and not needing food. I have a knife, if you are interested.

Zinnia Cyclamen said...

Nooooo! Hoss, you horror! But, thinking about it, the let's-sell-stuff-to-kids people have been making (fake) furry animal pyjama-cases, rucksacks etc for ages now. I guess they just haven't thought of pillows with Jim-faces yet. Or *shudder* the real thing. Is there a gap in the taxidermy market? I do most fervently hope not.

Bittersweet said...

what a practical child!