Don't take yourself so darn seriously

Rudy was out of sorts this evening.  LT was out somewhere catting around, and Peep was chasing butterflies and acting like a silly little kitten.  She’d invited Rudy to play, telling her that she shouldn’t be such a fuddy-duddy, but Rudy certainly didn’t feel like playing.  She felt like scolding Peep and telling her to act her age, so she did just that.  Goodness, Peep had to be at least six, and here she was acting like a silly kitten.  

Holding her tail high and rigid to show her displeasure, Rudy stalked out to the garage.  When she got there she batted to the side a few odds and ends the Daddy had left on the floor.  Goodness, couldn’t anyone be responsible around here?  Peep acting like a kitten, and Daddy not clearing up the floor!   She sat down and thought about what she should do next.  It wasn’t time to eat, she wasn’t tired and there was no one with whom to have a decent conversation.  Unless - - maybe Harry was around.  She hadn’t seen her spectral friend lately.  

“Harry, are you here?”  She sat down to wait, as Harry sometimes took a few minutes to materialize, or come over or whatever ghosts do.  Rudy’s tail lashed back and forth, although she didn’t even notice it.  

“Having a bad day, are you?”  Harry came through the wall from the radio room.  It really freaked Rudy out when he did it, but hey, if you have a ghost cat for a friend, you have to accept certain things.

“My day is perfectly fine, thank you.  It’s Peep.  She’s acting like she were an eight-week old kitten.  I expect to find her chasing her tail next.”  Rudy’s tail lashed even faster, at one point going right through Harry’s front legs.  

“Hmm, based on how fast your tail is moving, I’d say you’re the one with the problem, not Peep.  When my tail starts going like that I know I’m pretty annoyed.”  In fact, Harry’s tail was lying curled around his body as he sat looking at Rudy.  “What’s really bothering you, Rudy?”

Harry looked so serious and caring that Rudy stopped her tail lashing and mental complaints.  Maybe there was something bothering her.  “I’m not sure Harry.  I just don’t feel, well, right today.  It’s like my fur has been combed backwards and I can’t get it going the right direction.”  

Looking sad, Harry said, “Oh, it’s times like these I wish I still had a body.  You need a good supportive grooming.  Someone to put your fur and mind to rights.  I don’t miss eating half as much as physical contact with another cat.”  

Rudy looked stricken.  “Harry, my bad mood must be contagious.  I didn’t mean to make you sad.  I am such a thoughtless cat.  I yelled at Peep, kicked the Daddy’s stuff around and then made you feel bad.  I’m just worthless!”  

Harry looked incredulous.  “First you’re so mad you could spit, and now you’re so depressed you look like you are about to melt into a puddle.”  Harry stood up, walked over and sat down next to Rudy.  He then quite deliberately twitched his tail so that it went right through Rudy’s head.  Back and forth, back and forth.  “Don’t take yourself so darn seriously, Rudy.  You’re just not powerful enough to make me feel sad or make Peep feel bad about playing.  My being a ghost has its down side, but if I was a real live cat, could I be doing this?  He flicked his tail again, making it look like it was coming out of Rudy’s nose.  “Snap out of it, Rudy!”

When Harry started talking, Rudy briefly looked extremely offended, but then listened carefully to what he was saying.  She carefully opened her mouth, but instead of saying anything, she positioned her mouth around the ghostly tail as though she were biting it.  “Gotcha!  She then sprang through him where he was sitting, something she’d never dared to do before.  It didn’t feel like anything at all, just like she was jumping through plain air.  “You’re right, Harry.  I do take myself too seriously sometimes.  I feel sorry for myself and then blame everyone else for it.  So, let’s play instead.”  

Rudy and Harry sprang around the garage, jumping from table to table, onto the floor and then back up on a shelf.  Sometimes Rudy chased him, sometimes he chased her.  Finally, Rudy collapsed, completely out of breath.  “No fair!  You don’t have to breathe, so you can keep going, and I am…pooped.”  

She heard a laugh from the yard.  There was the Daddy, and it looked like he’d been watching the whole time.  “Rudy – I should put you in the circus.  It looked exactly like you were chasing someone, but no one is there.  That’s quite an act.”  Jay walked in and scratched Rudy’s ears.  “I’m glad to see you having such a good time, but now I need to clean up from that job I finished right before dinner.”  He bent and began picking up the bits that Rudy had kicked aside.  

Rudy looked at Harry.  “He can’t see you, can he?”  

“Nope, and I’m going to keep it that way.  I’m your special friend, not anybody else’s.”  He bent down and licked as though he were grooming Rudy’s ears, while she sat there and purred.