As I mentioned in my previous post, my new cat's name, "Bonita", certainly failed the Back Porch Test. This test (from Dave Barry, I think?) is highly effective when choosing a name for your new pet (or child). Procedure:
1. Pick a name.
2. Yell it very loudly off the back porch.
3. Evaluate how silly you feel.
So, I've been telling people about my new cat, a veritable font of nose-biting-in-middle-of-night, can't-see-very-well, throws-up-on-my-white-carpet, flings-litter-everywhere, bottomless-pit-of-cat-hair. The usual response when I mention her age (5) is, "hmmmm...so you could have this cat for quite a while". I've been joking, "well, maybe she'll fall off the deck."
Now I'm feeling kind of bad because today she did fall off the [second floor] deck. I was hanging laundry all over the place and she got herself through the railing, at which point I sneezed and startled her enough to take a flying leap. She landed on the driveway, looked confused (of course, she always looks confused) but no worse for the wear except for an elevated heart rate. At least now the mystique of the deck is gone; she just wanders in and out the deck door with no more affinity for the outside of the railing. Hope this lasts.