Slipping down the stairs of the three-story, fifteen-bedroom Victorian bed and breakfast, Oscar hears chatters in the dining room where early risers are already having breakfast. One of his many freak talents is dialing in on conversations in noisy places.… Continue Reading
“Honey,” my wife shouts from the living room. “Call the mechanic. Professor Bigglesworth messed the carpet.” After taking a few moments to process what she has said, I enter the living room and find Professor Bigglesworth frozen to her favorite… Continue Reading
They chewed. Mouths closed, looking down, they chewed. Each had a fork poised, eyes on their plates, choosing the next bite. He was first, speared a large piece of stringy meat, and scraped it into his mouth over his teeth,… Continue Reading
A potential catastrophe — the kitten strangling to death in the tassels of the afghan — pales beside what happens years after the near-strangulation when Margaret trips over the same now-grown cat. The cat’s vocal cords were damaged by a… Continue Reading
They’re like cats, I’d said. But who listens to kids? This was Phase Two — where hardship perks gave worker bee families like us houses we couldn’t have dreamed of back home. Ours was on a gloriously uncleared lot —… Continue Reading
“Now you’ll stay in at night,” Joe told Houdini, the big, orange, cantankerous-looking tabby he was trying to stuff into a carrier. Not flippin’ likely, said Houdini, although of course he didn’t because he was a cat. Instead, he arched… Continue Reading
Koggie, the 10,034th descendant of the original bio-engineered cat-dog prototype, sat on an ornate garden bench in the upstairs arboretum of the autonomous house and yawned as she watched the robs scurrying about like a plague of mice on their… Continue Reading
I like it in here. It’s dark, but it’s snug and warm as well. Cosy. I can curl up and go to sleep if I want. I like sleeping, and I’ve got a full belly and it’s been a long… Continue Reading
Sidney bulled his way in from the farmhouse porch, slamming the screen door, ignoring Maggie’s protests. She backed away from his advance, across the room to the very sofa she and Delia had occupied in peace, moments before. When her… Continue Reading
The cat is squalling again, the thin sound just human enough to trigger my maternal alarm. I’m halfway out of bed before I remember there’s no crying child in the next room; no one here but me and the mouser.… Continue Reading