The Slice: She’s crazy but always entertaining

My neighbor’s cat is showing signs of feline dementia.

She’s always been a little nuts. How else would you explain the unprovoked biting and hissing? I mean, even after all these years.

To her credit, she no longer actually clamps down when she puts her sharp teeth around your finger at warp speed. But still.

And she has never been what you would call a good listener. I don’t know how many times I’ve mentioned my allergies. But she acts like she can’t hear me and comes right in.

Fortunately, she can be bribed into leaving. A little tuna does the trick.

Of course, to be honest, this animal can be sort of fun to have around. Sometimes she is quite companionable. And because they have been hard earned, signs of acceptance from her are surprisingly gratifying.

Plus, she’s pretty cute in a rough and tumble way.

“You want to be good,” I say, patting her on the head.

“Get the tuna,” she replies with a look I’ve come to know well.

Anyway, getting back to her slipping sanity. Earlier this week, she came in and followed me to a room set up as an office. She likes to find paper and cardboard to bite. We have a variety of printed materials now featuring tiny puncture marks.

But this time she zeroed in on some large manila envelopes. Instead of her usual biting though, she licked the glue on the flap of one of them.

She did this until she got bored. Then she went to the kitchen to wait for me to prepare the exit-strategy snack.

But she looked like a puzzled baby that had just had a first encounter with peanut butter. She smacked her lips and worked her mouth as if trying to remember how her tongue and jaw were supposed to operate.

“You were licking glue,” I said. “What’d you expect?”

“Get the tuna,” she seemed to say.

Today’s Slice question (suggested by Lisa Spratt): What have you rescued/found/ discovered at the bottom of your basement window wells?