I'm keeping company with a cat for a few weeks. His human family is at camp and on research trips so he's at Camp Mark. Earl's an old and very gentle fellow. He likes people, purring easily. He never complains and puts up with extraordinary manhandling from children. He lets me pick him up, pauses while I snuggle, then quietly but firmly wriggles away. What a life!What a life? Spooning out canned cat food and scooping his turds from the kitty litter, I wonder. He eats, licks himself, and craps. He keeps a watch on things, sleeps in various places sometimes with one eye half-open. There are no other cats in his life, or even animals to hunt, so it's people he keeps track of. I've catsat before - I took care of two cats for a year when in graduate school - but I've never had a pet. Earl's low-key existence is raising some mild existential (and ecological) questions for me...
