Hope Makes Me Laugh

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Note: My cat – Hope -- is a beautiful half-tailed Manx (with a very slight knob on the end of her stubby tail).


Hope Makes Me Laugh


Sometimes our daily life seems dreary, and oh-so-serious. We “labor and are heavy laden.” We don’t smile as often as we should. Often, we aren’t even aware that what we really need to chase away the heaviness, is a great, good laugh.


A tired day for me. Life feels overwhelming.
There’s a low footstool in the bathroom, covered by the folded bath-mat-rug.
Hope loves to follow me from room to room. She suddenly materializes onto the mat-covered stool. Watching me intently. Ready for me to notice her.
Hoping to be petted, I think – given a hearty chin rub.
But she’s not turned the right direction. Her head isn’t close enough for me to reach.
Hope adopts an “oh well, never mind” posture. Ignores me. Begins licking herself clean.

Cats are certainly flexible! Her hind feet/haunches face one way;
Her head and upper body are parallel to them but completely turned the other way.
Tail east, head west.

Suddenly, she stops all activity. Looking intently at something.

Ah, there is –
"Oh, there's that strange thing again.” Her posture seems to hint that she’s noticed it for the first time. (Though of course she’s seen it many times before.)
“Why, look at that!”
“There’s that waggy thing with the knot on the end!"

She makes a dive for the knot.
Of course, as she’s on her feet, there’s no way a half-tailed Manx can catch her own tail!

She tumbles over on her side, reaching again for it.
But being so large (she weighs 15 pounds), she runs out of stool to support her.
Topples off, hind end first.
Hope swivels in mid-air to catch herself to land on her front paws.
But there’s a small bucket next to the stool.
She comes down, all off-balance, with her head in the little bucket.
Her haunches and body weight hang over the edge -- which of course tips over the bucket.

Zoom. She backslides, power-slithering her way out of the bucket.
Scoots out of the room as if chased by the bogeyman.

Am I rude, to laugh prolongedly and chuckle outright all the time she’s chasing her tail and tumbling into the bucket and scampering away?

Hope will soon forget her undignified fall. She’ll forget that a half-tailed Manx never wins the game of “catch my tail.” But I’m given a great and precious gift. It changes my outlook on the whole day – when Hope makes me laugh!


This post is shared with Laura Boggess and L. L. Barkat