<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">February<div class=""><br class=""><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">Winter. Time to eat fat<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">and watch hockey. In the pewter mornings, the cat,<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">a black fur sausage with yellow<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">Houdini eyes, jumps up on the bed and tries<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">to get onto my head. It’s his<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">way of telling whether or not I’m dead.<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">If I’m not, he wants to be scratched; if I am<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">He’ll think of something. He settles<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">on my chest, breathing his breath<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">of burped-up meat and musty sofas,<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">purring like a washboard. Some other tomcat,<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">not yet a capon, has been spraying our front door,<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">declaring war. It’s all about sex and territory,<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">which are what will finish us off<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">in the long run. Some cat owners around here<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">should snip a few testicles. If we wise<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">hominids were sensible, we’d do that too,<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">or eat our young, like sharks.<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">But it’s love that does us in. Over and over<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">again, <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">He shoots, he scores!</span> and famine<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">crouches in the bedsheets, ambushing the pulsing<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">eiderdown, and the windchill factor hits<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">thirty below, and pollution pours<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">out of our chimneys to keep us warm.<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">February, month of despair,<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">with a skewered heart in the centre.<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">I think dire thoughts, and lust for French fries<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">with a splash of vinegar.<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">Cat, enough of your greedy whining<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">and your small pink bumhole.<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">Off my face! You’re the life principle,<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">more or less, so get going<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">on a little optimism around here.<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">Get rid of death. Celebrate increase. Make it be spring.</div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Margaret Atwood</div><div dir="ltr" class=""><h1 class="quoteText" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; line-height: 21px;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></h1></div></div></div></body></html>