Hey y’all! The scary, allegedly animal-abusing circus is in town! You know, the one that busy daddy forbade the Busy-Lazy boys from attending tomorrow! You can practically smell the poop and hear the silent screams of the shackled camels and llamas from our house the Busy-Lazy shack up the hill!
Apparently the circus is coming to our town on the Fourth of July. I texted busy daddy to ask if we should bring the boy. Here’s our conversation:
Lazy dad: BTW, the circus is in town the afternoon of July 4. We should go, right?
Busy daddy: NO WAY! Are you on crack?
Lazy dad: I don’t think so, why?
Busy daddy: The last time the Zerbini Family Circus came to town, it was Totally Scary!
Lazy dad: Was it?
Busy daddy: You don’t remember!?! It was super-disturbing! Like, PETA-protesting, animal-cruelty disturbing.
Lazy dad: But disturbing in a good way, right?
Busy daddy: And there was a lot of poop. Poop everywhere.
Lazy dad: So are we taking the boy to the circus or not?
Busy daddy: The answer is still no.
Lazy dad: Sad face emoticon.
Before dinner, we had a little memorial to honor lazy cat’s passing. Busy daddy made a rock sculpture under the cherry tree in our backyard, and we told the boy he can look at it to remember lazy cat.
The boy asked, “How come there wasn’t any blood when lazy cat died?” We told him that sometimes animals die when they are sick and very old, and there’s no blood. The boy said, “Lazy cat is the first person in my family to die. I hope no one else dies.”
It’s crazy because I was over 30 years old before anyone I personally knew died. In fact, I’ve only been to one funeral in my entire life. It’s tough enough to explain to an adult what dying means, let alone explaining death to a five-year-old.
Today the boy has been asking how old everyone in our extended family is, and he’s trying to figure out who’s the next to go. I hope this preoccupation with mortality passes. I know it will. Hopefully soon.
Interestingly, the boy thinks that lazy cat will be reborn and come back as a different color cat. He asked if we come back as a different color when we’re reborn. I don’t know the answer to that question.
Despite the fact that I’ve pretty much always had a cat, I’ve never really considered myself to be a cat person. I’m a dog person through and through. The one exception has been lazy cat.
