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Indiespensable
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Fup. Store Cat.

Chapter 84

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

By mid-afternoon, though no one can quite believe it, the heat is such that Fup and Bear seek a spot in the shade beside the walking path. And only March yet!

The Park Blocks host a scene straight out of summer: Frisbees flying; strollers rolling; sunbathers basking on benches. In the adjacent playground, three sets of parents chat while their daughters circle directly from the bottom of the slide back to its ladder, one rushing to catch up with the next.

Fup and Bear spend ten or twenty or who knows how many minutes in the cool grass, trying to pick birds' voices apart without looking.

Until a Siamese cat passes. On a leash.

"No," Bear protests.

Fup tries to hold in the laugh. A giggle escapes despite her efforts.

Before they realize what's happening, the Siamese lunges, white claws reaching, sharp teeth gleaming, all four paws off the ground in a forceful, flat-out leap. Then (they will be talking about it for days, trying to imitate the sound for friends) the Siamese seems to bark.

The next girl in line for the slide turns to watch. Her friends clog the ladder below.

The leash goes taut. The cat's collar strains against his throat, though still his rear paws thrust forward with the momentum, a few inches short of Fup yet when — finally, and just as Fup's come to her senses — a sharp tug pulls the whole body back onto the paved lane.

"And now, if you'll excuse me," Fup announces, "I think I am going to faint."

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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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