The animals are all quiet
which usually means
they did something terrible
dogs terrorizing cats
cats terrorizing one another
goats terrorizing sheep
all hell was breaking loose
not ten minutes ago
but now? not a peep
the chickens sit quietly next to the ducks
waiting on dinner
feathers are ruffled on all sides,
no clear winner amongst the poultry
but Gaza the cat
is up a tree
and Israel the dog
is off her leash
and out of breath.
They hear the gate open
and everything goes back to normal
and they think we’ll never notice
but the barn looks like a disaster
the meadow is strewn with anything
and everything the dogs could find
and Standing Rock the dog is covered in cap poop
and Palestine the dog is covered in mud
and Lulu the dog climbs back over the gate
just as we’re assessing the damages
and she stinks of death-
rolling around in dead deer
is among our dogs favorite pastimes-
and Gaza the cat is too high up the tree
and scared half to death
so I have to get the ladder to retrieve her
but all is well that ends well
all chickens are accounted for
all ducks are accounted for
all cats are accounted for
all dogs are accounted for
all sheep are accounted for
all goats are accounted for
the horse, yeah she’s here too.
Missing in action? Just a few papayas
off the table
the dogs love papaya
nearly as much
as they love dead deer
cat poop
mud
and, for Israel
hunting cats.
And no, when we named her
we didn’t know that she had it out for cats
and for the record, she hunts any and all cats
it was just that today
our beautiful, black and white spotted
domestic short-hair cat Gaza
caught her eye first
after she broke free.
We’re careful, and thankfully
she’s never killed one of our cats
but sadly
she had escaped a couple times
and come home with the remains
of feral neighborhood kittens.
Once, we came home to find a dead kitten
but it looked exactly like our cat Butters
only smaller
and I thought my mind was playing tricks on me
I was scared to death
because butters was the first cat we got,
our baby
less than 2 weeks when we got him
we bottle fed him
and it was too small to be him
but it looked exactly like him
then after we found the real Butters
I was relieved
but then felt terrible
because a beautiful little kitten
was still killed
and I went and held Butters for a while
then went and held Israel for a while too
because I will always love her
and she can’t help herself.
She was trained as a puppy to hunt.
She thinks she’s doing
the right thing.
She doesn’t know Butters
and Gaza
and the other cats
the way that we do.
She doesn’t know how full of love they are
and that they, like her
are part of the family.
soitgoes1984 