Smoking cat

A brief story about mparents, our cat, and a cigarette

This is a story about my parents, our cat, and a cigarette.

It was a stifling summer afternoon in the bay area and my parents were trying to escape the heat, lounging on the patio in the shade with cool drinks; my mom with a magazine and my dad with a book.

Our cat, showing the good self-interest of all felines, had joined my parents on the patio, coming to rest beneath my fathers chaise lounge.

My fathers book was, apparently, so interesting that he had paid scant attention to his cigarette. Much absentminded tapping had loosened the burning coal at the end so it hung from a few shreds of tobacco. The cat lounged fretfully, my mother browsed mer magazine and my dad became even more engrossed in his book.

 

Two things happpened then, in close sequence, that would change the character of the aftertnoon and evening...

First the cat, deciding that things might be better on the other side of the yard, rose to saunter off.

Second, the cherry on the cigarette burned through those bits of tobacco and fell onto the cats back!

 

Now you might think that the cat would immediately notice this but his fur was thick and the burning ash was light , the result being that the coal sank very slowly into his pelt and he wandered off trailing a plume of smoke like a locomotive.

My mother, glancing up, noticed the cat, and the smoke, and said to my father; "Ray, the cat is smoking!".

To which my father replied, without even looking up from his book, "Nonsense Verna, you know we dont allow our children to smoke"

 

Yes, there were some chaotic moments that followed but.... that's another story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

Exercise in brevity