The Mime

Toonsis was a cat, made famous years ago on TV’s Saturday Night Live, who was often seen at the wheel of a car. Dolly did her Toonsis imitations from time to time from our kitchen window where she would sit and mime her complaints to the hot tub occupants -- her Mistress and Master -- in the backyard below the window. “I want out,” she would mime her mouth opening, closing. “I want out!” she would mime, “It’s time to walk the fence. It’s sundown.”

She’d fix us bathers with that emerald-green glare while miming, her mouth opening and closing meaningfully. We hot-tubbers would put other words in her mouth, laughing at the comedic comments being attributed to her but finally I would cave in and let her out for her nightly acrobatics. I always wondered how quickly could I react were an owl to appear out of the dark sky with talons at the ready? I’d already lost one of my beloved cats this way and was determined not to lose another. Dolly often sat on her Wooden Fence to enjoy watching the Sun melt down on the horizon, her ears alert, her small contained self a black shadow feline outlined against the magenta or crimson or golden molten sky – a fiery cat.