Cats and Dogs

Monique does not live with anyone else, but does have a dog and a cat named Polka and Papronell respectively. The only way I can describe these two is they are much the same as Odie and Garfield. As in the dog and cat from the appropriately named comic strip, Garfield. Odie, the slobbering fool juxtaposed to Garfield the calm, cool, and collected one.

Polka
Polka is 105 in dog years and is a white lap dog. Age has, unfortunately, not calmed her. I swear there is something in her food bowl. I have seen caffeine addicts who are less jumpy. The only time this dog has done something that old animals/people are supposed to is when she peed herself while we were all eating dinner the other night. One minute the tile floor was high and dry and the next, I hear Mo Mo yelling to her friend on the phone how she had to go cause Polka had just “Faire du pee pee.”

As soon as this happened I LOST it. I don’t know why, I’ve had dogs all my life and know that dogs do these things so ive seen plenty of puppy piddle. But I think it had more to do with seeing a little French woman running around like her pants were on fire yelling phrases in which I knew none of the words, but knew exactly what she meant. Oh and then when I offered to help by putting my napkin over the spill to help soak it up, this caused a yell that was more alarming than the one she made while hastily hanging up on her friend. Guhh as I write this, over a week later, it still get me laughing. It really is the little things.

Polka’s age in human years is 15 and although her owner loves her dearly, the thing looks like she has not been washed since Bush's first term. Also, if this dog has taught me one thing, it is why my parents always flipped whenever I fed our dog scraps from the table. This dog begs harder than any homeless person I have ever met. Begging consists of her jumping on her back two legs like they are made of springs and whining. I found this cute for about half way through our first dinner, and now after more than two weeks of it, I would not mind sticking her on the pyramid we saw at the torture museum.

This flaw in behavior is not Big Mo’s fault. She explained to us one dinner that she had yearlong home stay and when the guy got here, he hated dogs. However, he slowly warmed up to Polka and in order to show his love, fed her scraps whenever Monique wasn’t looking.

I hate that man.

Papronell

Papronell is the lesser-loved child. Kinda like the kid daddy never loved as much as the other children cause he wasn’t sure if it was really his child or the postman’s. Mark recently discovered that this is because Papronell is not Monique's cat, but she belongs to her daughter who can’t take care of her right now for some reason or another.

I however, really have gotten to like this cat. This have never happened before because I am a) usually allergic to most cats and b) most cats have the personality of a soggy pancake. Papronell does not fall into either of these categories. She will hop onto the couch and curl up in my lap whenever watching tv. I like her even more though because she puts Polka in her place. Monique tries to keep the two separated because if they get too close, Papernell has been known to get her claws out.

Papernell usually sleeps most of the day now that Monique has bought the cat her own bed. She had to do this cause she bought Polka a brand new bed, but Papronell wanted to use it. Since Polka is scared of Papronell, she couldn’t use her own bad. Monique then would chase the cat out of the bed because it wasn’t hers and Polka is too scared of the cat to stand up for herself. Mo’ played this game for about two days before getting tired of it and breaking down and getting a bed for each one of her animals.