COVID-19 and Patches by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Patches turned a year old this past Monday, and I’m so broke, I couldn’t buy him a gift beyond a can of cat food to replace his dry food for one meal. And I honestly thought I couldn’t give him more than that.

But the end of last week, as I headed out to pick up my cousin, to give him a ride, and as I got to the nearest stop sign from my place, I spotted a rather large cat tower by the stop sign. When I got up to it, I saw a sign on the tower, which simply read, “Free.”

Well, so I took it and returned home with it.

Patches got a big birthday present just a little early. Nice.

I guess I should also mention that Patches was full-sized weeks ago. He’s a big cat.

Okay, not that big.

My siblings should understand if I said he was O’Malley big not Scamper big.

For the rest of you, many eons ago I owned a cat named Scamper, and he was huge! Full-grown, Scamper weighted in at twenty-five pounds! But he wasn’t fat, I have a picture of him. He was just huge.

Anyway, around the same time my picture was taken, our neighbors had a cat named O’Malley. Now O’Malley was a large tomcat, and before we moved to the neighborhood, he was the only tomcat around. Needless to say, he didn’t like Scamper moving in on his turf which included several stray females.

O’Malley also didn’t like that Scamper was younger by several years and bigger than he was. If I recall correctly, O’Malley was five or six and Scamper couldn’t have been more than two.

To say the least, there were a lot of catfights between the two, and O’Malley, who had chased off every other tomcat around, couldn’t chase off Scamper. There was just no way O’Malley could win. Scamper was younger and bigger.

It was like a teenaged Hulk battling a middle-aged Mike Tyson. No contest.

Anyway, Patches is O’Malley big, not Scamper big.

Though recently, I realized that Scamper’s heritage might have included a Maine Coon, since they are extremely large, and I recently saw a picture of one that looked a lot like Scamper, including the tufts at the top of his ears.

We always thought he was part lynx. His mother was a stray tabby. But well his father could have been a Maine Coon. Scamper looked more like a Maine Coon than a lynx.

Anyway, enough about Patches and Scamper.

On to family.

I have one nephew how also had a birthday on Monday. So Happy Birthday, Brandon Gene Hamilton.

Now about Konnie. She’s still sick. It is in fact COVID. She’s in the hospital.

Where I am concerned, as far as I know, I have had no physical contact with anyone who has been exposed, or has tested positive for COVID-19. Emphasis on physical, since I have a niece who had the misfortune being exposed at work, from a coworker who had the gall to go to work sick during a pandemic.

But I have not seen my niece since just after Christmas. She lives in Twin Falls.

And then there’s Konnie and her husband, who are both sick.

Yes, I have talked to Konnie, but her family lives even further away than my niece. After all Twin Falls is only a couple hours’ drive away. Vegas is between a ten-and twelve-hour drive away. Yeah, not doing that anytime soon and that has nothing to do with the fact that both Konnie and Jerry have tested positive for COVID-19. I just can’t afford the gas.

Though sometimes I wish I could see Konnie. Except it wouldn’t do any good right now. At present, she’s stuck in an isolation ward and the only people she’s seeing are medical personal all covered in protective gear, as in, she can only see their eyes.

I’m glad it's not me! That would drive me crazy.

Actually, it's driving Konnie crazy. It would drive anyone crazy.

Though if it were me, I’d have the added problem of finding someone to take care of my cat.

Konnie has a dog, but she doesn’t live alone.

So, here’s praying that no more family members become sick, and the ones that are sick survive! I also pray this pandemic will end soon. And that everyone currently sick survives. I also pray for peace to return to this country, that the problems are solved for the benefit of all.

But think of all the fodder this is giving all us writers!

Happy writing everyone!