Allen and Kiki knocked the book of poetry out of the bookcase. Funny how they can tell which book to knock down.
“Hi, Kitties. Are you trying to tell me something?”
“Well, of course the most important thing to tell you is that we desperately need some treats.”
“Hmmm…I see.”
“But after that, we might be un-hungrified enough to sit for a while and hear some stories.”
I dug out a few treats. “You’re not too tired of the limericks?”
Allen crunched and licked his chops, and then spoke up. “Well, we do like to hear other stories too, but since the poetry book just happened to fall on the floor, with a little help from Kiki, of course, we think it would be OK read some more limericks.”
“I didn’t do it, Mom.” Kiki looked up with her sweet, innocent little eyes.
“That’s OK.” I went over and picked up the book, straightening the pages that had gotten messed up in the fall. “This poem is a little play on words.”
“You mean you put the words on the floor and we play on them?”
“It means that two words may sound the same, but mean different things.” They looked at me warily.
A llama from old Avocet
met a lama who lived in Tibet
They struck up a chat
but were bugged by a bat
and a rainstorm that got them all wet
Allen looked at the picture. “Who is doing the talking here? Nobody has their mouth open.”
“Well, since they are all standing out in the rain, I suppose it could be any one of them. It could even be the person who is taking the picture.”
The cats looked puzzled.
“Come over here and snuggle next to me, and listen to this one about a pootie like you.”
“Oh, yay,” Kiki said. “Is there a mouse in it, too?”
“Actually, there is.”
A marmalade kitty named Crouse
discovered a cute little mouse
The mouse stated, “Hey,
“if you’ll please let me stay,
“we can snuggle up right in this house.”
“Wow! It would be fun to have a mouse in our house to chase around.”
“Hmmm…Maybe…Here’s a new poem about a squirrel.”
Kiki piped up, “I like to sit on the window sill and watch the squirrels run on the fence outside.”
“That’s probably why the window always has smudges on it, from little kitty noses looking out at birds and squirrels.”
“And daydreaming about going out there and chasing them. Do you think you could let us do that sometime?” They both looked at me with anticipation.
“Let’s just listen to poems right now. Okay?”
I was enjoying feeling their little furry bodies vibrating with purrs against my legs.
A squirrel who was strong as an ox
kept his acorns all stored in a box
On each winter’s day
he feasted away
and kept his feet warm in wool socks
“And look, here’s a poem about a bird.”
There once was a shiny black crow
who rode around on a hippo
When the hippo submerged
then their paths, they diverged
and the crow flew back home to Quito
“You know, I’m kind of scared of crows.” Kiki looked concerned. “They sometimes fly down and steal my fur.”
“Perhaps a good reason to not mess with them, “I said. “Listen to this limerick about a rabbit. You’re not afraid of rabbits, are you?”
“No. I think it would be fun to chase a rabbit.”
“But what if the rabbit was bigger than you are?”
“Are there big rabbits like that? Oh, no! Then, I would be very afraid.”
There once was a giant white bunny
who came into a great deal of money
He encountered some parrots
who sold him some carrots
which he dipped in a big pot of honey
“Here’s a story about a critter that you have never seen. Baboons are pretty big, too, but I don’t think you will find any of them around here.”
One bright day at just about noon
I met a quite friendly baboon
He first shook my hand
then said, “Come, meet my band,
and then I will sing you a tune.”
Well, it looks like these kitties here are getting drowsy, so I guess it’s time to go for today. “Hey, Allen and Kiki, can you stay awake long enough to say goodbye to our friends?”
“Oh, sure,” they said, but I knew we would have to do it fast because I could see their eyes going closed.
“Have a great week, folks!”
Don the Con