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Indiespensable
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Fup. Store Cat.

Chapter 69

In Loving Memory
Fup. Store Cat.
1988 — 2007
fup 18 fup 19
Click here for details on our specially designed Fup. Store Cat. T-shirts!
Fup. Store Cat.
Fup watercolor courtesy of reader Linda McDougall. Click here for a larger view.
Bear
bear 		Zooey
zooey

see Fup's photo album

Shortly past two o'clock, when the late-night bars have shut down, a last wave of foot traffic rolls past the store to collect parked cars. The lamppost out front throws an oval of light through the display window. Fup lurks at its dark border, hidden from view.

"As good as a one-way mirror," she assures Barleycorn, her young cousin visiting from the Boring countryside.

"A what mirror?" Barleycorn asks.

"Some mirrors only look like mirrors," Fup explains. "They don't have the same solid backside, though. You can stand behind it and spy on whoever's in front as if you're looking through a regular window."

A man approaches the curb, fumbles momentarily with his keys, then folds himself cautiously into his sporty two-seater, reclines his seat, and closes his eyes.

The tall mirror on the bedroom closet door, the round one over the bathroom sink, the giant one over the dresser... Barleycorn shudders to consider how many mirrors his family's farmhouse contains and how many hours he's spent preening in front of them. For instance the time he... No, he doesn't even want to think about that.

Close by, a siren begins to howl. Seconds later, Burnside is awash in swirling, orange light. The man sleeping in his sports car merely adjusts the pillow he's made of his coat, but in all the commotion Fup loses her train of thought. She won't think about one-way mirrors again until who knows when. For months, however, Barleycorn won't so much as look at his reflection in the pond, for fear of fish staring back from below.

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The Trip to Kahani

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Read the press release.

Follow the links to more Fup adventures
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Fup's Picks

That Cat That Changed My Life: 50 Cats Talk About How They Became Who They Are That Cat That Changed My Life: 50 Cats Talk About How They Became Who They Are
by Bruce Eric Kaplan

"All these cats lead exciting and varied lives wholly independent of the human race," notes the editor in his Introduction. Well, duh. Scant attention has been paid to the role of community in modern cat culture, so what a relief that here, finally, fifty articulate felines set the record straight. Funny, sad, occasionally shocking, but never less than true, these brave monologues reaffirm our interdependency in ways that choreographed public displays such as Paws Across America never can.

Unleashed: Poems by Writers' Dogs Unleashed: Poems by Writers' Dogs
by Amy Hempel

In "Dog Kibble," Tasha Baxter's verse exhibits a brutal economy of words: "Life is never meaningless," her villanelle announces, "there is always food." Here and throughout this collection these authors demand your attention, as if to bark, "You can send me to my room for yelling at the neighbors but you cannot silence what woofs in my heart!" Among the selections nominated for Best American Writing by Pets 2000 are Bob Barker Barry's sordid and hilarious hallucinogenic escapades with Lynda; a tragic, posthumous prose poem by Marrow Irving; and Sadie Louise Lamott's "Spoon River Sadie Louise," a wildly metered exploration of the cross-cultural dynamics within a household occupied by dogs, cats, birds, and small children. The sheer intellect of these collected pieces will renew your faith in dogs.

Is Your Cat Too Fat?Is Your Cat Too Fat?
by Bronwen Meredith

Too fat for what? And what business is it of this Meredith person's anyway? Bronwen sounds like the kind of lady I wouldn't like at all.

 
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