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Caturday Pootie Diary: The snowman returns [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-09-02
I carefully pushed the coffee table towards the wall, grunting with effort. It was heavy, but I wanted to clean the floor beneath it.
As the heavy table moved, the floor beneath it was revealed slowly.
Dust.
Bottle cap.
Cat toy.
Another cat toy.
Candy wrapper.
Cat toy.
“Huh,” I said, as the final bit of floor was revealed.
Snowman.
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I bent down to pick it up and straightened, staring at the small object in my hand. “I haven’t seen you in a while,” I told it. It’s a small, round bit of plastic in two pieces that snap together. Holes in the snowman’s body are just big enough to drop treats when the toy is nudged the right way.
“Treats?” Freddie asked from my feet.
I looked down at him. “Where did you come from?” I asked. He had been out of my eye line just a second before.
“Treats?” he repeated, looking at the toy in my hand.
“Yeah, okay,” I said, leaning over to snag the treat bag from the table.
I sat and gave my attention to the treat bag and the plastic dispenser. It’s a little old now, and I was afraid to break it if I opened it from the head, as it’s designed for. Instead, I dropped the treats through the dispenser hole one by one until there were about six treats inside.
Freddie watched from the floor, focused intently on my work.
I shook it, making the treats inside rattle. “Ready?” I asked.
He stood and shook his tail in excitement.
I walked to the back door and set it down carefully on the floor. I could clean the floor under the table without having to step over him if he were occupied and out of the way.
“I know it’s been a while,” I said, stepping back to give him space with it. “You might not remember how to work it.”
He lifted a paw and pushed the snowman gently to its side. Two treats dropped out as it rolled and wobbled back to its standing position. Freddie immediately bent to eat the fallen treats, then turned back to the toy to repeat the process.
“Good job!” I said, genuinely impressed, then picked up the broom.
I finished sweeping the dust and other detritus into the dustpan and looked up, hearing the snowman roll across the floor. “It sounds empty,” I told him.
He continued to roll it with his paw, checking the ground every so often for treats.
I stepped past him to dump the dustpan in the trash. “It’s empty,” I said as I walked by.
He hit it one last time, then followed me into the kitchen. “It’s empty,” he said.
“Uh huh,” I said, tapping the dustpan against the side of the trash can to dislodge all the dust. I put it back in its spot under the sink and grabbed the bottle of floor cleaner. Freddie followed on my heels as I left the kitchen.
It only took a minute to mop the small square of hardwood and I soon had the table back in its rightful place. I stood and looked around. “I should probably clean the rest of the floor,” I told the room in general, “but I don't want to.”
I looked over at Freddie.
He sat next to the snowman, watching me. “Empty,” he said.
“I don’t want you to get sick,” I explained. “Too many treats make you barf. No one wants that.”
He gently pawed the snowman, moving it a little without actually rolling it. “It needs more treats,” he said, sadly.
I puffed up my cheeks and blew out a breath. “Only a few more,” I said, caving completely. I scooped up the toy and sat back down on the couch with it, the treat bag still where I left it on the couch cushion.
This time only three treats were pushed through the dispenser hole. I really didn’t want to see him hork them back up. I shook the snowman to build anticipation, then bent over to set it on the floor at my feet. It was between the couch and the coffee table.
Freddie freed the treats in short order and gobbled them up, then pushed the empty toy around.
“It’s empty,” I said for about the thousandth time that afternoon. “There were only three. You got ‘em all.”
He continued to push the snowman around until it reached the edge of the coffee table.
“Don’t — “ I said, but too late. He pushed it under, then lay down on the ground and shoved it as far as his furry arm would go. Seemingly satisfied, he retracted his arm and sat up, then looked over at me.
“Well,” I said with a shrug. “At least it’s clean under there.”
Happy Caturday, Peeps! May your treat dispensers always be retrievable and full.
[END]
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