KristyWes

Cure for Hot Cats

2 months since my last post! Wow, better catch up my reading public on my whereabouts and goings-on and such. To sum up: I've been at work. Ick - lame! Let's not dwell on it though. "This too shall pass." Onwards... to some things I feel like sharing:

1) Every so often I have a day where all I feel like listening to is The Cure. Can anyone relate? This doesn't happen too often; just often enough to justify owning their greatest hits cd. Today is a Cure day. Not sure exactly what brings it on, but I just go with it.

2) Summer in the city doesn't exactly agree with me. Those who know me a little know I hate heat a lot. A few weeks ago, heat settled onto NYC in a sticky haze, and I hated life a bit. I thought I could soldier on with just 2 little fans in my apartment, and resisted purchasing an AC for as long as possible. Pure folly! I slept terribly (if at all) for 4 nights, had to adopt a strict No-Pants rule at all times I was in the apartment, and spent considerable amounts of time standing in front of the open freezer door. Now all that is behind me, and I finally have an AC of my very own. Sweet, sweet, sweat-less existence.

I was up in Harlem last week, in the middle of the heat wave, helping a friend move. On every block of the neighborhood we were in, someone had opened up the fire hydrants and water was spraying everywhere and flooding down the streets towards the Hudson. Kids were splashing and running happily in the spray, while adults looked on (wishing, I think, they could do the same if only they weren't so grown up). It was quite a sight.

3) Sunday I came home to find a cat staring at me. This almost never happens. I am not a big cat fan, so I don't own one. But on Sunday, a young cat found it's way onto my window sill, and was watching me through the (closed) window when I walked in the door. This window is an odd one - it's positioned in a kind of crotch (if you will) where my building touches the building next door at a weird angle. It's a ledge 3 stories above the ground, and there are no other window sills nearby - just the matching sills one story above me and one story below. I have no idea how the cat came by his perch on my sill.

When I found him there, he had the unmistakable look of panic on his cat face. My first instinct was "Ohmygosh! Save the scared cat!" so I quickly moved to open the window, which only served to increase the cat's anxiety. He started crying via anguished "meows" and edged away from my well-meaning hands. I tried to reassure him that I was friendly and just trying to help him, for crying out loud, but he didn't appear to speak English. In his misguided mistrust, he chose to make a leap for some wires running down a nearby wall. He almost made it, but couldn't get a good grasp on the wires. I watched in horror as he jumped, slipped, and fell away from the building.

I KILLED A CAT! I thought. I felt terrible and guilty and angry at the cat for his foolish decision not to trust me. I finally brought myself to look down at the ground, to see if I could see his bruised and broken body. But he was alive! And slinking off to hide under some crates on the ground.

I had forgotton this was a cat I was dealing with - they're a tricky wiley sort with their 9 lives and ability to land on their feet after a 3-story drop to a concrete floor. Sheesh. My guilt assuaged, I tried to put the cat out of my mind and move on with my day. Still...I thought maybe I should get a cat after all. It was a nice feeling -those few moments when I tried to help the cat and considered him my responsibility. But then he went and faked his own death. You know, I really don't need that kind of stress in my life.