Crossing Your Path

Of my parents’ four children, I am the only one who has provided grandkids, so I have never been a natural aunt. Nick’s brother Ben has a son who, besides being an awesome kid, made me an in-law aunt when I married into the family, but none of my siblings have given me a niece or nephew to spoil rotten and then send back. At least none of the two-legged kind. My youngest brother Matthew, the intense attorney, has a few soft spots in his hard-shell personality including cooking, plants, and, most surprising of all, kitties. Well, one kitty. Several years ago, when he was still a lowly undergrad living on a shoestring and staying in crummy rat traps, he fell in love. Or at least committed to a co-dependent relationship with a crazy girl--which passes for love in lots of places. Matt’s lady love was not so much the girlfriend kind as the furry friend kind. He brought home the black ball of fury we came to know as Sabbatha--a clever tribute to the band Black Sabbath--and they settled into a domestic routine from which they have deviated little in all these years. So, I sort of have a niece--who hides in the bedroom when I show up and lays her ears back flat when I come near her. It’s not the ideal aunting situation, but I respect her independence. In Lynley Dodd’s Slinky Malinki, a cat that’s “blacker than black” is “stalking and lurking.” Black cats do that.

P.S. Happy Birthday, Black Cat Guy!


http://www.amazon.com/Slinky-Malinki-Lynley-Dodd/dp/1582461481

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynley_Dodd