backforthmenu The Days After Dead Cat Night. The morning after the dead cat, I walked into the jungle on the side of our house to look for him... I’d taken a shower and had my backpack on, ready to go to work. Spider webs were capturing my face and ants crawled into my shoes, and so, I didn’t get a good look—because I don’t like webs on my face (I’m always wondering if the spider is dangling near my Adam’s apple, preparing to immobilize me) or ants in my shoes. I noticed our neighbors have a bathtub in their side yard. Maybe the cat was behind that, I told myself, and left for work quickly, wiping at my face, feeling generally itchy. That night when I got home, Anne was over with Kelley, who’d already been telling her of our Dead Cat Night. “But there was no cat body!” Finished Kel. “Well,” I added, “We didn’t see one.” “Of course not.” Anne tells us, “It was two horny cats going at it!” “Nooo. I only heard one.” Pause. “Only one was having a good time.” she added. Two days later I saw the black and white cat again when arriving home late. I had inserted my key into the lock of our front door when I was startled by the thing as it lay comfortably in a padded lawn chair on our porch, not more than 3 feet away. “Oh SHI—hey kitty. You’re alive.” He just stared at me, of course. I went in and slept—very well. 9/3/00