A Jaguar in the Basement


I had to mow the wetlands. I tried to throw the ball for dogger and she wouldn’t follow it into the tall grass. She just stood there and heaved a big sigh in my direction. I did find a dead snake back there, so I’m still on the road the Grantdom. I am keeping the dream alive - one dead snake at a time.

I am used to be being sighed at by my pets. Kitty is an old hand at the Sighing game. He did it more at the apartment because he was so disgusted with the general size of it after our palatial 600 square foot place in Dallas. He could run from one room to another and be in different rooms. He’s a snob. He loves the house. He can run upstairs and downstairs and doesn’t have to spend anytime with me unless he wants to. Dog loves me, she follows me around. Kitty used to follow me around, when he was a baby he would sit in my lap and watch me play with the computer. Sigh. Those were the days; when Kitty could fit in my lap. Today he would need his own chair.

Kitty is mad at me because I won’t let him go outside as much as he wants. I think that he should be happy to spend his time in the basement, with the bugs. He likes bugs. He gets all hunty and predatory and really gets his inner jaguar on. He feels his inner jaguar would do better in the back yard, where there are actual birds. I have seen the spiders in the basement and they are very like birds. Big. Spiders. Big. Tall. Spiders. Now the light down there has burned out and they are running amok. Big, tall running amok spiders. I may never do my laundry again.

I do need to rescue the clothes that are still down there, but that’s going to have to wait until there is more natural light to ward off the beasties.

Maybe if I don’t feed kitty for a few days and just make him spend more time down there, he can handle the spider problem. Or maybe the spiders will handle him?

Maybe kitty can spend more time upstairs with me.

The problem with the basement is the number of open pits that lead to dark, buggy regions that may or may not be the sewer. At least one of the dark scary pits spites out on to my driveway. I don’t fear that pit as it has a big heavy lid. The other pit is open enough that I can look into it. I think things come out of that one. Icky, buggy, bug things. Ewww. I tried to block them by using some spare ends of boards and making a little fence thing around it. It does keep kitty from drowning in it, but it doesn’t keep the bugs out.

It also smells damp down there. Damp and buggy. And moldy. It didn’t smell like that before but now it reeks.

I think something died down there and something else killed it.


The new TV season is starting tonight. Kind of. I’m wanting to really like Whoopee. I watched a show on TRIO, I think, and it was all about Pilot season and how things get to or don’t get to air. When you think of all the giant Turkeys that make it to air, it really makes me scared – of more turkeys like Brothers in Space or anything on the WB or UPN or FOX or ABC…

I looked at the run down of new shows for the season and out of all of them, only liked, three. I’m either old and sad or everything on network TV sucks. But it doesn’t, I like network TV! With the exception of the reality shows and the family values shows and the exploitation shows.

Okay, the Whoopee is too detailed. Big Failure sign. This has six weeks. I enjoy it, it may have less then that. I’m hoping that Happy Family is good ( edited to add, boy, was ever. Not.). I need something to watch every night. NYPD Blue doesn’t come on until 10pm, but that’s in reruns so I’m watching Queer Eye until NYPD comes back.

I still hate my jooobbbbbbb, I still need my jooobbbbb


HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALPHAGAL!!