Pooped

“Look what the cat dragged in”….,  an idiom, attributed to various

Yesterday it was HOT as heck outside.  Living in El Cajon,  a community east of San Diego, for the last twenty years I know that Californians were sold a bill of goods when El Cajon was settled.  Within a half-hour of the coastline, so the price of real estate here is exorbitant.  In summer, because the ocean breezes are stifled by this valley ( El Cajon is Spanish for “the box”), the weather is more akin to living in Arizona where I grew up.

Because I go in and out the living room slider,  to check on the plants baking in the sun,  sweep the patio,  and clean up the dog poop,  I am constantly being minded about my shoes tracking in dirt – or something worse.

My wife and I,  returned home from some grocery shopping after church, and were going to put away and catch a little siesta (nap)  in the afternoon.  We had a seminar we planned to attend later that evening.   And then, I was asked, sweetly, “Could you check the bottom of your shoes?  Something was tracked into the kitchen – Oh my, it is all over the house.”

With white tile throughout most of the house – the former occupant’s idea of a home upgrade – it has generally been whitish, but this day, there seems to be some added colorant with excrement tracked in.    Throughout the whole house.   It looked as though one of the dogs, Comet or Dexter tracked it.  A paw print, a brown smudge just inside the dog flap at the sliding glass door confirmed it.

Forty-five minutes later,  a dog-bed cover is in the wash.  White tile scrubbed clean and now back to “whitish” again.   A “clean” aroma lingers.  The backyard poop was cleaned  up and dirt raked.  Patio hosed down – and is already half-way dry in the 95 F heat of late afternoon.  The puppies’ heat-caused diarrhea seems to be over now that everybody is wiped down, water bowl cleaned out and refilled, and air conditioning turned lower.

According to something I read,  the idiom  “what the cat dragged in”  should be taken as a snarky comment directed at some less-than-welcome house-guest.    Poop is definitely unwelcome.   But  I don’t know why cats – which our family has at various times had as members of the family – are so maligned, but I know Comet would like some feline in the neighborhood to have taken the rap yesterday.

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