{"id":9166,"date":"2013-07-09T10:01:53","date_gmt":"2013-07-09T16:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/atalantarising.surly.org\/?p=9166"},"modified":"2013-07-09T10:24:52","modified_gmt":"2013-07-09T16:24:52","slug":"the-cat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atalantarising.surly.org\/?p=9166","title":{"rendered":"The Cat&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cYou might as well give in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know what you\u2019re taking about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes you do. They\u2019re on to you anyway.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHmmm? Come again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, you let them think you\u2019re so tame, but really, you\u2019re a wild little thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, you\u2019re trying to blow my cover then?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo&#8230;No, it\u2019s just that wild things should stalk and strut and saunter.  And when they ask; \u201cJust who do you think <em>you<\/em> are?\u201d  Rather than that contrite little grin, just tell them the truth instead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd what would that be?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour a hot mess &#8211;the daughter of Gypsy Lee Rose, Zeus, and Mae West &#8211;or at least that\u2019s the best guess.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, is that so?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes. It is.  And when they look at you sideways, like they\u2019re afraid you might be a little cracked, you can give them that wide Cheshire grin of yours, and a bouncy little Rudyard Kipling rap. Something like this; \u2018Oh truly best beloved, do hear and listen and attend for this did befall and behappen and become, and it is true as true can be.  Out of all the tame animals that were once wild, I was the wildest of them all: I am the cat!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAh, well yes. That is true. I <em>am<\/em> the cat &#8211;they already told me that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd you can continue on like this:<\/p>\n<p>\u2018No best beloved, I am not:<\/p>\n<p>The Dog.<\/p>\n<p>Or The Horse.<\/p>\n<p>Or The Cow.<\/p>\n<p>Or The Bat.<\/p>\n<p>Why, I\u2019m not even The Rat.<\/p>\n<p>So you can just rule out The Mouse, all tiny and skittering about your house.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ll probably get wrapped around the axel if I tell it to \u2018em like that!\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s it to you?  I mean, your the cat.  The cat who walks by herself and all places are alike to you. You walk about flicking your wild tail while stalking the Wet Wild Woods all by your wild \u2018lones.  Remember?  But I see your point.  No need of starting an fight over that.  Just hop in their lap and purr every so sweetly and remind them that you will keep your side of the bargain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAh. That\u2019s right, \u2018The Bargain!\u2019  Remind me again, of the details.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut the Cat keeps her side of the bargain too. She will kill mice and she will be kind to Babies when she is in the house, just as long as they do not pull her tail too hard. But when she has done that, and between times, and when the moon gets up and night comes, she is the Cat that walks by herself, and all places are alike to her.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/60141310@N00\/9246652883\/\" title=\"Untitled by banjobear, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3774\/9246652883_04fdde2087.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" alt=\"Untitled\"><\/a><br \/>\nThen she goes out to the Wet Wild Woods or up the Wet Wild Trees or on the Wet Wild Roofs, waving her wild tail and walking by her wild lone.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh! And be sure to remind them of their side of the bargain too!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s only fair I suppose.  Let me think, how did that go again&#8230; Ah, yes.  I remember now.  Ok my best beloveds, now sit, here, by the fire with me and<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHear and attend and listen; for this befell and behappened and became and was, O my Best Beloved, when the Tame animals were wild. The Dog was wild, and the Horse was wild, and the Cow was wild, and the Sheep was wild, and the Pig was wild\u2014as wild as wild could be\u2014and they walked in the Wet Wild Woods by their wild lones. But the wildest of all the wild animals was the Cat. She walked by herself, and all places were alike to her&#8230;.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And what&#8217;s the moral? Pick up your barbell as often as you can, so that you can be The Cat &#8211;as wild as wild can be.<\/p>\n<p>Many thanks for the inspiration, and apologies, to Rudyard Kipling for my current little romp.  To learn of the cats bargain, read all of the most proper and yummy tale of: \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/etc.usf.edu\/lit2go\/79\/just-so-stories\/1296\/the-cat-that-walked-by-himself\/\">The Cat Who Walked By Himself.<\/a>\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cYou might as well give in.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t know what you\u2019re taking about.\u201d \u201cYes you do. They\u2019re on to you anyway.\u201d \u201cHmmm? Come again.\u201d \u201cOh, you let them think you\u2019re so tame, but really, you\u2019re a wild little thing.\u201d \u201cSo, you\u2019re trying to blow my cover then?\u201d \u201cNo&#8230;No, it\u2019s just that wild things should stalk [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atalantarising.surly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atalantarising.surly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atalantarising.surly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atalantarising.surly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atalantarising.surly.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9166"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/atalantarising.surly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9181,"href":"https:\/\/atalantarising.surly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9166\/revisions\/9181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atalantarising.surly.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atalantarising.surly.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atalantarising.surly.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}