tenting tonight

A week or so ago, my good friends and very best next door neighbors Eddie and Eric let me know that they had a termite problem and were going to have their home "tented". Now, if you're living in the Keys you know exactly what I'm talking about but for the rest of my readers, "tenting" is a process where a half dozen guys show up, cover an entire building with a tarp, seal it (as best they can) and fill it with something like Zyklon B and let it sit overnight to kill all the termites.

Well now the reason my good neighbors gave me the heads up was so I could take special care that Max (the cat) wouldn't get in harms way. Curious cats have a way of getting into places we dumb-ass humans think we can keep them out of and, it's a fact that cats and other critters have found their way to termination by "tenting". So when the crew showed up late this afternoon, it was time to cut off Max's access to the great outdoors.

Now my girl Max, generally has free and uninhibited access to anywhere she wants to be so, when she found the screen door not propped open for her ingress and egress, she was, quite honestly, pissed. (A cat lover friend told me that if I just explained the situation to Max she'd understand and be alright with it.) Well I tried and guess what. . .
Even though I'd explained my sorry ass off and then resorted to bribing her with StarKist (her favorite junk food), she still wasn't talking to me.

An hour or so ago, while I was cooking dinner, I let me mind spool through the day's events (up to and including Eddie and Eric's overnight "tenting") and an old Civil War era camp song, "Tenting Tonight" came into my head. It seemed a bit twisted, but appropriate so I let it roll on. . .

"We've been tenting tonight on the old camp-ground,
Thinking of days gone by
Many are the hearts looking for the right
To see the dawn of peace.
Tenting tonight, tenting tonight
Tenting on the old camp-ground."

Well, I've known that melody from a younger time in life and started half humming/half singing the diddy. Don't you know, Max came out of her cloistered corner and sat back with me in the kitchen as talkative as ever.

Maybe it's the power of music and love. Maybe she knew I was cooking up a filet of Snapper.