Telling the Truth

Prince Oliver Smudge the Second, August 2014

while Queen Elouise
is away Prince Smudge will play
be-bop-a-lula!

*****

I’m her baby
And I don’t mean maybe!

***

How’s that for my very first haiku + poem?
I think it’s way past time for you to hear about ME–
straight from the cat’s mouth!

*

My Short Long Tail Tale of Being Lost and Found

Someone abandoned me in a state park!
Lost, lonely, scared, hungry and soaked with rain,
No one seemed to care about me.
I cried a lot.

One day I looked up and saw two very large, long-hair animals
standing on two legs each.
They smiled a lot, talked sweet and held their arms out to me,
but I knew better.
I wasn’t about to let them get their big paws on me!

After a long time they left without me.
I didn’t know whether to be relieved or sorrowful.
Then they came back,
thanks to their kind, patient chauffeur mother.
They waited around until they saw me again,
but guess what?
I was already watching them.
They were being very cagey.

They opened a little can of kitty food and held it out
so I could smell it.
I almost died, it smelled so yummy!
But I KNEW they were just trying to trick me!
So they kept consulting with each other,
conspiring about what to do next.

Suddenly they nodded their heads in twinly agreement.
I knew right then I was in double do-do.
Two against one is never fair!
They looked at me and started backing up very slowly,
leaving little crumbs of  yummy chicken-flavored cat food
on the ground, sort of like Hansel and Gretel
in the  deep dark scary woods.
Even though I knew it was dangerous,
I followed the trail.

The path of cat food bits led to a parking lot
with a car that had a big cage in it.
And guess what?
The rest of the food was sitting in the can,
right inside the cage!
I KNEW it was a trick.
Didn’t I just tell you they were very cagey?

But what’s a hungry kitty to do?

Smudge on Rescue Day, 9 Aug 2013

So they shut me up in the big cage and took me somewhere.
I found out later it was a barn.
They took me to a room of my very own
so the other animals wouldn’t bother me.
Then they made a charming kitty hotel with food, water, a litter box
and clean, dry, soft blankets just for me!
I was so happy that I wanted to cry.
But instead I purred and decided I must be in cat heaven.

Next they told Queen Elouise
they had a kitty she might like to meet and maybe keep!
They also told her
they already made an appointment with the cat doctor
who would give me a full checkup and shots.

I think Queen Elouise was a little nervous, because it was so sudden.
But  she came to meet me and, of course, decided to take me to her house.
I’ve been living there now for one year!

 It’s hard work training QE to think like a cat,
but she has a kind heart and loves me silly
even though she sometimes gets all exasperated with me.
Every now and then she laughs at me so hard
that tears stream down her face,
and she can barely catch her breath.
Sometimes I think she might pass out right on the spot!

Below is one of my long-hair rescuers.
She’s holding me the day I met Queen Elouise,
just two days after I got rescued.

You can see why I’m called Smudge.

QE named me Smudge.
Then everybody added on other bits to create my formal title:
Prince Oliver Smudge the Second!

Do you like before and after pictures?
I do!
Especially if they’re about me.

Smudge on 11 August 2013

Smudge on 29 Sept 2013

Out of time!
I hear Queen Elouise coming in the front door right now!
Maybe we can do this again sometime.

Yours very truly,
Smudge

***

© Elouise Renich Fraser, 1 September 2014
Photo credits:  MNFraser (11 Aug 2013 photos), DAFraser (all others)