I took Betty outside to romp, and she spotted an enormous cat on the property behind ours. She stared at it for a long time since it looked like a larger version of the attack cat we sometimes encounter on our walks—a cat that has learned to leave Betty alone. When it was clear that this cat was simply large and indolent, Betty decided that she wanted a new friend, but the damn fence was in the way.
Betty pushed on the fence a bit with her front paws, but it didn’t move. The only thing left to do was to bark an invitation to play to the cat. Who could resist an invitation made with the deep bass barks that the pretend dogs in the neighborhood envy? The cat could and did resist. It looked terrified, but it was too dimwitted to do anything other than freeze in place.
The failure of the cat to accept Betty’s kind invitation was annoying, and the barks became elongated into a near howl. Betty had not howled before, and the strangeness and newness of howling caused her to pause briefly in contemplation. She must have decided that howling is pretty cool since she let off two more pretty good howls before giving up on the cat and walking away to sniff stuff.
The question now is how do we advance Betty’s howling education? There are no howling gurus nearby, and my howling is pathetic. Cats are inherently unreliable, and squirrels run away before any howling can start. Betty will just have to teach herself. She is probably okay with that.
I get up very early once a week to go grocery shopping. Betty, who wants to be involved in every family activity, is no longer fooled by my attempts to sneak out of the house without her noticing. She dearly wants to go grocery shopping with me, and who can blame her. A grocery store is dog heaven, and she would make lots of new friends if I took her inside. But the store won’t let Betty enter, so I have to go grocery shopping all alone.
I wish Betty would have been permitted to accompany me during my last grocery shopping trip. Three male employees were standing by the apple section spouting off idiotic conspiracy theories (the news about the possible COVID vaccine was purposely released after the election, etc.) and making sexist comments about their female boss. My capitalist thought was that all three should be fired that instant. Employees spewing shit in front of customers is very bad for business after all. My Betty thought was that she would make them retreat into the slime-hole from which they originated, but Betty wasn’t there. The only thing I could do was to sing John Lennon’s “Crippled Inside” quite loudly while giving the three nimrods the evil eye (I know all the lyrics by heart).
A singing customer was so freaky weird that all three dipshits shut up immediately. Perhaps they thought I was some sort of lunatic, but when I got to the “one thing you can’t hide is when you’re crippled inside” refrain part, all three looked away and pretended to sort apples. I finished the song and then took my time getting the produce we needed. Only silence came from the three stooges. I guess Arlo Guthrie was right. If you want to end war and stuff, you’ve got to sing loud.
Carol and I took Betty with us when we went to vote early. I took Betty on a walk around the grounds when Carol went to vote. The building in which we voted used to be a hospital — it was the hospital in which I was born. I spent a little time thinking about that fact as Betty sniffed around pleasantly, but that wasn’t the main thing on my mind.
The primary thing bringing me down was that once again I wouldn’t be voting for something. Instead, I would be voting against something. That something I voted against is evil for certain, and I had to vote against it, but still it would be nice to vote for something for once. No way could I vote for Biden in the sense that I actually support him. C’mon, the guy is a plagiarist, he isn’t smart, and he doesn’t support universal health care, a living wage, making the rich pay their fair share, and a myriad of other things I think are vital. His invocation of religion in various speeches is irritating — our government was founded as and must remain a secular government, and appealing to imaginary deities to help us just doesn’t cut it. Perhaps I could think of my vote as a vote for Harris, but she is no progressive either. Nope, this election was just one more case of fending off the horde of rabid racist fascists who want this country to be a plutocratic theocracy.
Betty sniffed around a little more, and then I walked her back to the car and sat with her in the back seat until Carol returned from voting. I waited in line with my mask on and cast my ballot about 30 minutes later. Didn’t feel so good about it. Still don’t feel so good about it.
I took Betty outside to romp, and she spotted an enormous cat on the property behind ours. She stared at it for a long time since it looked like a larger version of the attack cat we sometimes encounter on our walks—a cat that has learned to leave Betty alone. When it was clear that this cat was simply large and indolent, Betty decided that she wanted a new friend, but the damn fence was in the way.
