Wednesday, June 21, 2006

A SILLY, SILLY NEIGHBORHOOD

Things are pretty good Way Down in Mayberry. It's a safe town. You can often hear children whistling while walking down the street. We have concerts every month on the Village Green. We have committees and groups and clubs for just about everything you can think of. We have a Community Farm and a Saturday Market. We have Fourth of July parades and barbecues. We have a Newsletter. We have Backyard Bird Habitat certification. We are a community rich in the love of nature and a concern for the environment. Nestled in the foothills with hundreds of acres of trails to hike, bike and explore wildlife.

That said.......

We are also a community that has "suggested" our townfolk to do something about our cats. In particular.....leash our cats. The idea behind this "suggestion" is to keep cats from preying on the nesting birds or pooping in someone else's garden.

Now you may think leashing cats is a funny idea. I do too really. I'm kind of embarrassed to say that three of my four cats are leash-trained. Many years ago when they were kittens, I kept them as indoor pets and trained them to go outside on a harness. They loved nature and would meow incessantly to go out. We lived on a busy street and I did not want to risk them being road kill.

Quasimodo and Pooh

When the association suggested leashing our cats, did they not understand that cats cannot be leashed like dogs? You can't just leash your kitty and go for a walk.

Cats walk you.

They go where they want to go (preferably to the nearest catnip plant, birds nest or butterfly). You can't teach a cat to sit, heal and stop at the corner of the street. They are a wild breed of sorts. And if you try teaching an adult cat to be on a leash......good luck. They will do everything in their little kitty power to try to get out of the contraption. Their bodies twist, contort and generally look like a toddler trying to get a t-shirt off of its head.

So you take the good with the bad. You curse the Mayberry association under your breath suggesting such a ridiculous idea, and then you go back to enjoying your wonderful neighborhood taken straight from a Rockwell painting......half-eaten baby birds, cat poop in your wood chips and all.

4 comments:

tallulah said...

Diverse? What's that? We have one black man in the neighborhood, a few adopted children from China and various other countries, one middle eastern family,one of my Hispanic children (the rest are Nannies or paid help or construction workers).
So to answer your question...yes, nearly everyone is lilly white.
Does Pleasantville come to mind?

Jennboree said...

Yeah, that seems like a very lilly white thing for a neighborhood to do. I live in a neighborhood of dying or just-about-dead old white people and their greedy relatives perched on their doorstep ready to put out the For Sale sign.

Anonymous said...

I, for one, plan on putting both my cats on leashes, and maybe the guinea pigs too. And then when they get mauled and eaten by whatever huge dog got out of it's teeny tiny sub-urban yard I'll have something to complain about too. Damn. Why are people so stupid and when did common sense go so far out the window?

RockerMom said...

Oh geez, there is no way I could walk my cats. They've been indoor since birth and know how spoiled rotten they are. I've actually opened the door and they barely act interested. I wish they would cozy up together like yours, though, that's so cute!