Gardening Sale!
 
 

Special Offers see all

Enter to WIN!

Weekly drawing for $100 credit. Subscribe to our Specials newsletter for a chance to win.
Privacy Policy

More at Powell's

Pets

Indiespensable
spacer

Fup. Store Cat.

Chapter 88

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

"You can't tell me it's impossible," Bagheera argued. "We've never even tried."

Could a cat walk on a high wire? Squirrels can do it, even the clumsy ones.

And so they practiced. And practiced and practiced: first across the narrow metal pipe topping the fence in Bear's back yard, then along a tight chain blocking the unused rear entrance of a Sixth Avenue parking lot. From the start, Bear showed more aptitude than the others, a combination of uncanny balance and quick, agile paws. Oreo, on the other hand, simply didn't mind falling; consequently, he improved the fastest . over and over he'd spill, but right back up he'd climb to try again.

"I believe we're ready," Bagheera announced.

The cats took their places. When a squirrel scampered out on the power line, Oreo raced up one pole and Bear climbed the next. With such ease, and so quickly, they had the squirrel surrounded.

What no one had considered was the possibility that two more squirrels would follow Bear and Oreo up the poles. When had they ever seen squirrels work as a team? ("When had they ever needed to?" Fup would point out later.) Before the cats had taken three steps onto the power line, they were trapped, a squirrel on each end and another in between.

So they jumped. It was a long drop, but what choice did they have? Cats always land on their feet, indeed; but it's worth noting that their legs and shoulders, their back and hips, sometimes hurt like heck in the morning.

previous   next

The Trip to Kahani

1  ·  2  ·  2.5  ·  3  ·  4  ·  5  ·  6  ·  7  ·  8  ·  9  ·  10  ·  11  ·  12  ·  13  ·  14  ·  15  ·  16  ·  17  ·  18  ·  19  ·  20  ·  21  ·  22  ·  23  ·  24  ·  25  ·  26  ·  27  ·  28  ·  29  ·  30  ·  31  ·  32  ·  33  ·  34  ·  35  ·  36  ·  37  ·  38  ·  39  ·  40  ·  41  ·  42  ·  43  ·  44  ·  45  ·  46  ·  47  ·  48

Read the press release.

Follow the links to more Fup adventures
1  ·  2  ·  3  ·  4  ·  5  ·  6  ·  7  ·  8  ·  9  ·  10  ·  11  ·  12  ·  13  ·  14  ·  15  ·  16  ·  17  ·  18  ·  19  ·  20  ·  21  ·  22  ·  23  ·  24  ·  25  ·  26  ·  27  ·  28  ·  29  ·  30  ·  31  ·  32  ·  33  ·  34  ·  35  ·  36  ·  37  ·  38  ·  39  ·  40  ·  41  ·  42  ·  43  ·  44  ·  45  ·  46  ·  47  ·  48  ·  49  ·  50  ·  51  ·  52  ·  53  ·  54  ·  55  ·  56  ·  57  ·  58  ·  59  ·  60  ·  61  ·  62  ·  63  ·  64  ·  65  ·  66  ·  67  ·  68  ·  69  ·  70  ·  71  ·  72  ·  73  ·  74  ·  75  ·  76  ·  77  ·  78  ·  79  ·  80  ·  81  ·  82  ·  83  ·  84  ·  85  ·  86  ·  87  ·  88  ·  89  ·  90  ·  91  ·  92  ·  93  ·  94  ·  95  ·  96  ·  97  ·  98  ·  99  ·  100  ·  101  ·  102  ·  103  ·  104  ·  105  ·  106  ·  107  ·  108  ·  109  ·  110  ·  111  ·  112  ·  113  ·  114  ·  115  ·  116  ·  117  ·  118  ·  119  ·  120  ·  121  ·  122  ·  123  ·  124  ·  125  ·  126  ·  127  ·  128  ·  129  ·  130  ·  131  ·  132  ·  133  ·  134  ·  135  ·  136  ·  137  ·  138  ·  139  ·  140  ·  141  ·  142  ·  143  ·  144  ·  145  ·  146  ·  147  ·  148  ·  149  ·  150  ·  151  ·  152  ·  153  ·  154  ·  155  ·  156  ·  157  ·  158  ·  159  ·  160  ·  161  ·  162  ·  163  ·  164  ·  165  ·  166  ·  167  ·  168  ·  169  ·  170  ·  171  ·  172  ·  173  ·  174  ·  175  ·  176  ·  177  ·  178  ·  179  ·  180  ·  181  ·  182  ·  183  ·  184  ·  185  ·  186  ·  187  ·  188  ·  189  ·  190  ·  191  ·  192  ·  193  ·  194  ·  195  ·  196  ·  197  ·  198  ·  199  ·  200

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.

 
spacer spacer
Follow us on...




Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.