For nearly a week I haven’t seen Clarence. Of course the worldwide celebration of my birthday kind of upset a lot of the wildlife around here what with all the fireworks and sonic-boom flybys of the Tom-friendly nations’ military forces on display. But it’s been quiet for a few days and I figured I’d see the little guy soon. Sure enough, as Karla took out the salad bowls from the cupboard, one of them contained—hooray!—Clarence!
He was still a bit shaken by the past week’s festivities and struggled to escape my grasp. I managed to put him in the kitchen window where he normally shows up, but forgot that since we last saw him we had placed a large ceramic frog, one of the many Clarence-related birthday gifts I had received, in the window in Clarence’s honor. Omigosh! He would have nothing to do with that monster! Imagine yourself standing next to a human figure that’s 40 feet tall; you can see what he was thinking. So I chased him down, grabbed him again and put him right on top of the new giant frog. He calmed down immediately, perhaps thinking that he now dominated this enormous beast.
A few nights ago it was warm outside and I had managed to capture several moths that were attracted to the porch light. I kept them in a large jar with the lid off so they could escape if necessary, and at least not suffocate. There were two moths left, one dead. I tossed them toward Clarence and he totally forgot about being manhandled by a great big human only seconds before and glommed onto a moth with a ferocity that sent chills up my spine.
Tonight I’m going to sleep with a gun under my pillow, if I can find one. Okay, a knife. Well, a pair of scissors. And I'm going to re-think this whole Clarence relationship.
If I can sleep, that is.
4 comments:
Very cute picture! It's hard to believe Clarence is a cold blooded (!) moth-eating-monster when you see him looking so innocent there. I guess the old cliche about not judging books by their ocver and all is really TRUE.
Take care, Tom. Good care.
Oh - and forgive me - I didn't prrof read my comment before publishing it. I've become more dyslexic with age...
Thanks Susan. At least the wild critters here in the US aren't as lethal as your Australian ones! But still I'm gonna keep a gun under my pillow just in case.
I know what you mean. I have weapons of insect destruction in my place. Flyswats fro the huge horseflies and small insinuating ones, rolled up newspapers for the wasps, old shoes for cockroaches and toebiters, old brooms for dealing with poisonous spiders...it's a jungle in here and you do have to keep your wits about you.
Post a Comment