Saturday, January 23, 2010

Bag Lady

The wind hollered like a freight train rumbling out of Buffalo in the middle of January. The Bag Lady, a boney pile of layered rags kept me buried inside her tweed coat. I don’t know who was keeping who warm. She was bedded down under the Southeast Freeway overpass near the Potomac. Faint and eerie shadows danced with the gang graffiti on the overpass' I-beams. Reminded me of the Yard Cats. Suddenly, I missed those boys.

Never a quiet moment for the last several days. My eyes only closed after sheer exhaustion.

I wanted to see more of DC but, I got nabbed by the Bag Lady almost immediately. Sly one, she was. Scooped me up before I knew what hit me. At first I feared I was dinner, for she had nothing to eat but store brand cat food. If it had any tuna in it, it contained the worst part of the fish. I don’t know, what would that be? The feet?

I happily ate what she gave me, but I soon realized that was all she had. I felt bad, but grateful that she fed me. Weird how those emotions got tangled.

She threw a hemp-woven leash and collar on me right away. I got to say, I had no chance to claw my way out of this predicament. She wore layers and layers of rags. No matter what I dug my claws into her, I never reach flesh. So I settled in looking for an opportunity to escape.

The Bag Lady took me on a tour of the sites. Her narrative rambled on. Honestly, I paid little attention to it. She positioned me in her shopping cart and I felt every crack in the sidewalk from 4th Street to the Mall. I did a dental check to be sure I still had all my teeth.

At the Lincoln Memorial she packed me into her coat again and climbed the stairs to the base of the great man’s feet. My, Mr. President what huge feet and hands you have. That’s when I made my escape, nearly tumbling down the stairs tail over whiskers. I veered to my right and found myself standing in the middle of a platoon of soldiers, looking as worn and as bedraggled as me. The Korean War Memorial. I hid among the warriors until I chewed the leash off. It was good to be free again.

My freedom did have a price. I accidentally left my GPS with her. Disoriented, I headed out of town on the wrong road, finding myself headed toward Annapolis. Not being one who likes to back track I pushed on. When I get across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, I’ll turn south once again.

Tonight I discovered it is not crab season in Maryland. More seagull for dinner. Stupid birds are easy to catch as they stand facing the wind ready for take off. Approach from down wind and they never see, hear or smell cat.

1 comment:

Lydia Fiedler said...

I really didn't know you had a GPS, but I AM glad you have your teeth and got to meet the pres with the largest paws and dogs EVER!!

Hemp leash? Wow - DC hasn't changed much since I was there :)

God speed, kitteh. Get here soon.

xo