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Indiespensable
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Fup. Store Cat.

Chapter 165

In Loving Memory
Fup. Store Cat.
1988 — 2007
fup 18 fup 19
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Fup. Store Cat.
Fup watercolor courtesy of reader Linda McDougall. Click here for a larger view.
Bear
bear 		Zooey
zooey

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His apple-minder. His right-away, all-day companion. One day Fup showed up and simply reinvented his world. Like a lightning strike, or overnight snow.

Bandit groped for a straightforward explanation that he could share with the cats. There was no shame in admitting it, but he knew he'd be teased all the same.

On Fup's third day in Boring, Bandit brought her to the park. The city cat, a source of unparalleled local intrigue. No point letting gossips rule the day.

"She works in a bookstore?" the mountain dog whispered.

"Works?" the Lab asked. "Or mooches?"

How soon the dogs gave up resisting. Acceptance proved easier. Fup didn't so much assimilate as she became part of the scenery. Asked nothing of them. Just three days had passed before each morning found both mountain dog and Lab vaguely hoping she'd be there come afternoon.

But that first day at the park: Eventually Bandit mingled with the neighborhood dogs. Not until he felt comfortable leaving Fup on her own did he lope across the muddy field — she practically begged him to get on with it; to let her be, and let himself be.

"What kind of name is Fup?" the wiener dog was quick to inquire.

"What kind of name is Oscar Meyer?" Bandit replied.

"A nickname is what kind. My given name is Rusty."

"Whatever."

The sun ducked in and out of low clouds.

The Lab bowed to the mountain dog while the blue heeler gnawed his own tail — fleas. Bandit looked for Fup across the field and didn't see her. His stomach slipped.

An instant passed before she took shape in the apple tree.

Her apple tree, it would become. He spotted her there, as natural as dusk, reclining in a crook of trunk and branch.

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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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