#y. a.

Should we place an ad in the RQT, for a lost but annoying tabby?

No- we would never do anything so logical.

Instead, there was Clay and me.

We’d look at what remained in the classifieds section, which culminated, always, in the mule. When we ran, he’d be steering us over there, and I’d stop and call to him, “NO!”

He’d look at me, disappointedly.

He’d shrug, he’d go, come on.

To ward him off, I softened when something else arrived, in an ad that was placed by the pound:

A female, three-year-old border collie.

I drove there myself and picked her up, and came home to the shock of my life- for there, right in front of me, on the porch, they were all out laughing and celebrating, and between them, the goddamn cat. The bastard had come back!

I got out of the car.

I watched the beaten-up, collarless tabby.

He looked at me; he knew all along.

He was a cat with particular schadenfreude.

For a moment I expected a salute.

today's my new beginning...

let me, the crew and our the rest of OUR world, share with you our road to success...

whatever that is.