Neighborhood Animals

Life on the porch is interesting. If traveling around wasn’t so much fun, I’d be like Emily Dickinson and stay here all the time. She wrote poetry in her upstairs bedroom,. I’ll think profound thoughts here in the porch. It’s early morning here in rural Southwest Alabama. The neighbor’s animals have joined me. There is a calico cat that thinks she lives here and a new rat terrier puppy. I think he’s adorable, but not so his mother. She and I have an uneasy peace. She slinks around the neighborhood, barking at all passing by. She barks at me until I scold her severely. There is nothing cuddly about her. She ate my best pair of sandals are couple of years ago when I was naïve enough to leave them on my own porch. I can’t quite forgive her for that. They were and still would be, the most comfortable pair of shoes I ever owned.

I have never had quite the animosity toward an animal that I feel for the shoe chewing dog, but I am fond of her offspring. His name is Buddy. The only cross word we had was yesterday when he tried to chew up my computer cord while I was working on the porch. The porch is my open air office during all the months I can sit here without a parka and hood. Even in the summer, early mornings are ideal for being here.

Last night, two old friends came to dinner and we actually ate on the porch. The animals didn’t understand why they were not welcome during the meal. It’s not like they actually belong to me. I don’t feed them or perform any care giving activities for them. The neighbors take very good care of their animals. They are not hungry, but they were not about to go away last night without a fuss. They didn’t get it that they were not welcome at the party. Of course, mama Molly, the mother rat terrier dog is never welcome at any event on my porch. I try to never entertain any guests who nip, snarl, pr bark at me. Usually, if it is just me the baby dog, Buddy and the cat, whom I have nicknamed Miss Tabb because she is a tabby are welcome. Last night was different. There was major food involved. My friends brought bacon wrapped filets, grilled Vidalia onions, asparagus with lemon sauce and homemade blackberry cobbler from berries picked fresh that day. Nobody would have been welcome to share. I am greedy when it comes to good food.

Those of you who know my hometown know that we have a leash law here. When it was enacted, my brother was among the most vocal against it. In the funny way that life has of coming full circle, he is now the ordinance officer for the city, which included dog catching. There was much controversy over it as there is with any issue when you try to turn a community into an organized city. We just got zoning in the last few years and just went wet last year. For those of you who may not know,” going wet” means allowing liquor to be sold. There was such an outcry over selling alcohol in some sectors that you would have thought the proponents were try to catch their children and boil them. So far, I can’t tell much difference since we went wet from when we were dry. I did however, go to a local store to buy a bottle of wine to serve my guests last night. That was nice that I didn’t have to buy it far away and import it.

My brother never reads my blog. In fact, he may not be aware that I have one, so please don’t tell him about my porch friend animals who are not on leashes. I want them to still visit, only not at dinner parties.