25 MAY 26

“Yali... it’s time to clean up your stuff now... it’s everywhere...”

Yali stares... thoughts cooking... walks off mumbling to himself... “Where’s that blowtorch?”...

Now maybe this is an omen of portending issues and how they could best be resolved... or maybe it’s just another day around here... wedged between Patience washing all the dishes leftover from mixing pink edible chocolate chip cookie dough... and researching strawberry poison dart frogs and Koi poison dart frogs and modal fallacies... and Yali and Patience taking turns wearing the watermelon helmet Yali carved yesterday with eye holes...

But whatever it was... I eventually make the mistake of doing laundry in the basement on a holiday and while down there waiting for suds to mix I realize that we haven’t seen the gray cat around for a few days... so I text Puck...

“Could you please look in the rafters for Crackers... I’m not tall enough...”

A few minutes later while Puck is straining to see into the storage room ceiling with his iPhone light... “What the...”

Water is puddling on storage boxes... splashed over the treadmill... soaked ceiling drywall...

Puck sees this as an opportunity for the crowbar... soon soggy drywall carnage is strewn everywhere and...

“AAGH! She’s using the ceiling as a LITTER BOX AGAIN!”

For the next hour or so there’s mopping up in the kitchen sink cabinet upstairs... the culprit somehow... and Puck finishes tearing out more drywall muttering about mold and biohazards ultimately pronouncing...

“THIS HOUSE IS A DUMP!”

He is later rewarded with Slim Chickens for his heroic efforts and... the cat is still MIA...