The kitties were ready for me as I sauntered into the living room this afternoon. A big red book lay open on the floor where they had pushed it out of the bookcase.

Image attribution: Apricot Cat/MVK

“How about some more limericks, Mom?” Allen meowed, as he jumped onto my chair.

“Yeah, we already got the book out for you.” Kiki was rubbing her nose against the book.

“Sure, why not? Come up and snuggle next to me and we’ll see what
we can find.”

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I turned a few pages. “Here’s one you will like. It’s about a lizard.”

“Ooh, yeah, I like to chase lizards,” Allen enthused.

A cute little brown and green lizard
caught a fly that tickled his gizzard.
He called out, Dad-nab-it,
Go get me the rabbit.
He’ll fix it, ‘cause he is a wizard.

Image attributions: unsplash/oleksandr-kuzmin (lizard); stefan-fluck (rabbit); sharon-waldron (wizard hat)

“Hmph,” commented Kiki. “I would have thought that a cat would have been more helpful than a rabbit.”

“I suspect a cat might have made it worse for the lizard, don’t you think, what with biting at its tail and things like that?”

“Well…but the cat would have had fun.”

Uh-huh.”

Kiki looked over at the next picture. ”What’s that strange looking creature? It has stripes, but it doesn’t look like a tiger.”

“That is a zebra. A zebra looks kind of like a horse, and each zebra has its own unique set of stripes.”

A zebra whose name was Bernard
came wandering into our yard
His stripes were so charming
It was quite disarming
Tho’ he stood there and munched our Swiss chard

Image attributions: pexels/magda ehlers (zebra); unsplash/liam-mcmonies (garden of Swiss chard)

“Well it wasn’t very nice of him to eat up the Swiss chard. Uh, what is Swiss chard, anyway?” Allen was curious.

“Swiss chard is a leafy vegetable, usually green but sometimes red…”

Kiki wrinkled up her nose. “Yeww. I don’t like green vegetables. They are yucky.”

“Some animals like veggies, Kiki. I guess this zebra was one of them.”

“Hey, look at this dog,” Allen was trying to turn the page with his paw.

My old friend once had a big dog
who wallowed around in a bog.
He came back so muddy
my friend said, “Good buddy,
You must think that you are a hog.”

Image attribution: pixabay/Katrina S

“He looks pretty dirty,” Allen observed. “Do you think he is going to have to get a bath?”

“If he were my dog, I think I would give him a bath,” I told him.

“I wouldn’t like that at all,” they chorused. “Poor dog.”

I shifted about a bit. I was enjoying feeling the throbbing of their purrs against my arms. “Here’s one about an animal called a burro. That’s the Spanish name for a donkey.”

There once was a jaunty gray burro
who was walking along in a furrow
She spotted a sparrow
who was feathered and narrow
and asked him to bring her a churro

Image attributions: pexels/leon woods (burro); unsplash/aniket-solankar (sparrow); foodie flavors (churro); pexels/alexey-komissarov field)

“I would like to have a churro.”

“Yes, me, too…uh…What’s a churro?

“It’s a fried pastry, like a sugared donut, except that it’s straight instead of round.”

“So it’s not made of chicken or tuna? Oh. It doesn’t sound much like the treats I like. And you think burros like them?”

“It looks like this burro did Hey, look, here’s a poem about a frog.”

Young Fred was a sweet little frog
who lived with his friends in a bog
The frogs snagged them some gnats
that they shared with the bats
then chilled out and relaxed on a log

Image attributions: pexels/alex qian (background); frogs: pexels/pixabay; unsplash/davud clode; zdenek machacek; bat and sky: unsplash/ishan-seefromthesky

“Fred is a pretty dumb name for a frog. Why is he named Fred?” Allen asked.

“Why is your name Allen?” I asked him.

“Well, Allen is just a proper name for a cat. Don’t you think?”

“Mmmm…of course. It must be.”

“Hey, Allen, “Kiki called to him. “Here’s an owl like that one that went on the boat trip with a cat.”

Elizabeth was a barn owl
who perched on a smooth wooden dowel*
*(Well, OK, It’s a branch, but that didn’t rhyme.☺)
She had a sweet hoot
and soft feathers to boot
She was quite a charming young fowl

Image attribution: unsplash/ronan-furuta

“Oh yes, a bird. I like birds.” Allen was looking closely at the picture. “But I’m a bit afraid of those big birds, and I remember you telling us that owls are pretty big.”

“Most owls are certainly bigger than the crows and the doves that we usually see. When you see one fly over you, their wingspan is quite spectacular.”

I felt him shiver. “Maybe not. I don’t want to see that, I don’t think.”

“This next limerick is kind of silly. I have never heard about a wombat going into space.”

Ginny the wombat wore some lace
as she rocketed out into space
She was going to the moon
on that nice day in June
and she had a big grin on her face

Image attributions: unsplash/meg jerrard (wombat); Benjamin Recinos (space suit);spacex (rocket ship); Rachel Moore (moon); Hans Reniers (lace)

“Do animals go to the moon? To that big light in the sky at night? Really?” They were in awe at the idea.

“A few animals have gone into space, but I don’t think any of them have gone to the moon yet. That is, except for some humans. Of course, humans are animals, too.”

“Oh, yeah I almost forgot that. And are those humans there, now?”

“No. The humans visited the moon, but nobody stayed there. The moon doesn’t have any water to drink or air to breathe.”

“I guess we would need those things, huh?”

“Yes, I think so. Hey, look at this one. Let’s end this reading time with a limerick about a cat.”

Fluffball was an orange and white cat
who meowed in the key of A-flat
she sounded quite lyrical
It was almost a miracle
as she warbled there on the bath mat

Image attributions: pixabay/Helga Kattinger; unsplash/Sufyan (bathroom)

“Fluffball sounds like a nice cat.” Allen reached out his paw and touched the cat.

“I wonder why she was singing in the bathroom,” Kiki mused. “I would rather sing in the kitchen, where I can get some tuna for my efforts.”

As I closed the book, I heard a bit of loud mewing as they both jumped down and headed for the kitchen.

Well, folks, I guess it’s time for me to get up and dig out a can of cat food.

Image attributions: rawpixel (tulips); Apricot Cat/MVK (cats)

We hope you have a spectaclarly delightful week and the good health to enjoy it. Ta-ta for now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2 COMMENTS

  1. The one about the Wombat wearing lace to the moon jogged my memory on a fun fact from long ago. Those of us old enough (even guys) remember Playtex from back in the day, a well-known manufacturer of ladies undergarments and bras. They were a division of International Latex which won part of the contracts to build the suits worn by the Apollo Astronauts! Other contractors and subcontractors had problems not just with design but making the suits, and at one point when a new bid proposal was sent out the folks in the Playtex Division of ILC spent six weeks working round the clock to come up with a bid, which wound up giving those makers of ladies underwear makers of Apollo Astronauts space suits!

    This was a group of seamstresses that knew all about working with difficult materials including rubber and getting everything just right – the tiniest of flaws in the seams and the zippers that closed and sealed everything up would have been fatal in space.

    Anyway, I thought since even a lot of old farts like me who watched in wonder as kids or teens (hell, so did most adults but they’re mostly dead and gone now) might like to know that not at all well known factoid about the moon landings.

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