The June Bug Incident

As noted in several earlier posts, we have 6 cats – each with their own distinct personalities and mental abilities. Of all the felines living with us, my personal favorite is the latest one who adopted us – LC. She’s been sharing our space for about three years and she’s smarter, by far, than most other cats I’ve known.

Case in point.

Last summer I was repainting our kitchen and, in the process, pulled the stove out to paint the wall behind it. You all know what happens when you move a major appliance – there’s so much shit under it that it takes longer to clean the floor than it does to paint the entire wall.

I got a broom and dustpan and proceeded to sweep up all the loose garbage that had accumulated over the past few months since it had been moved the last time. One of the “lumps” that I swept up happened to be a rather large, dead, beetle – one of those big June bug type critters.

I was being observed, as always, by LC. She’s our resident job supervisor, constantly checking that all our chores are done correctly and to her satisfaction. The June bug was duly noted by her and put in her report.

Bug and trash swept up and dumped, I left the dustpan on the floor and proceeded to paint the wall. When I finished, I pushed the stove back in, plugged it up and started to clean up my mess. As I stepped over to get the dustpan off the floor, I got a surprise.

LC had deposited one of her many toys in it. She has catnip mice, little fuzzy play-balls and a large, blue bug. It always reminds me of a smaller version of that big plastic bug that we had to assemble in the old kids game “Cootie.”

LC had seen me sweep up the June bug and assumed that all bugs needed to be put in the dustpan. I hadn’t seen that bug in days, but she apparently knew exactly where she had left it.

Sometimes I’m afraid to go to sleep at night. I fear LC’s going to get back at me for not giving her more cookies.

Later,

obi