The Secret Dreams of Cats
For many years, when people spoke of the 'dog days' of August, I envisioned blue-tick hounds, lolling on their bellies in front of dusty general stores, panting through sweat-quilt heat and the lonesome whine of a harmonica. How disappointed I was to learn that the phrase was really about Sirius, the dog star, brightest light currently in our Northern sky. Although she would bristle at being compared with a dog, the heat has been hard on our kitty Duchess, and lately she is often seen belly-down on the cool hardwood floor, squarely in front of the portable fan, and regally confident that her subjects will see her and step around her. She also lies in front of our bedroom window, meditating on the motions of alley grass, and drowsing in feline-dom, one paw lazing twitching at her fantasy mouse.
