Austin360 blogs > Globe-Jotting > Archives > 2009 > August > 12 > Entry
Shaking that tail
The rat chronicles are now in the ratty dance phase, and so Tina, rodent of certain magical talents, performs something that looks like a blend of the Hokey-Pokey and a circular mosh pit spasm. Barely a dance, more of an arcing sprint, yet still playful and rhythmic, it is a performance that musical accompaniment would unfailingly invigorate.
It requires some humility and lower back distress on my part. I have to get on my hands and knees on the rug in the kitchen while she’s in there (behaving devilishly, no doubt). She peeks out from behind the fridge, then scampers toward me. I stick out my hand(s) and gently grab her, softly rough her up.
She takes this as play and gallops back toward the fridge, but stops half-way and cuts a crescent on the rug and scampers back to me for more.
You have to see it to understand the dancey elements. Tina is elegant and precise in her moves. She is young but she has remarkable control over her growing body, unlike the shambolic, crashing-into-walls grace of, say, a puppy, or my niece.
Tina! I call. And out her snout juts from behind the GE appliance, whiskers twirling. Tina! A little more, some neck, those front bubble-gum-colored paws. C’mon! Out she runs, scrambling my way. It’s balletic in its almost entirely non-balletic way.
Pets are hard work. Even small ones will compromise the most ironclad routine, make you do things you never conceived of. I now spend about 10 minutes a night on my kitchen floor engaged in a paw de deux, a bonding ritual between human and beast that contains its own ineffable poignancy.
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