Zeugma Dreams

I’ve got the pieces of the RSA paper put into the order I want, and I’m working on transitions and a works cited. As always, it’s taking longer than I thought.

Zeugma saw her black-capped chickadee today. She froze stock-still and I followed her gaze up to the birdfeeder, watched her hunker down, watched the front legs tense and the tail lash as the little bird scolded and hopped and took its seed, and — just as the hindquarters started to quiver — I saw Zeugma’s pupils dilate. The black center to those green eyes got huge, so fast. Taking in more light: gauging.

She sleeps on my desk. She’s learned not to chase the cursor on the screen, learned that it’s not something she can catch. She still sometimes wants to touch the caps lock, but mostly — when she’s not asking me to throw crumpled-up Post-It notes for her to fetch — she’ll lie down next to the keyboard. Now, I watch her, watch as those front paws twitch, as the back legs scrabble a bit, as that little ribcage suddenly speeds its up-and-down, as her ears and nose and whiskers flutter, and I have to stop myself from waking her up, worried that she’s having a nightmare after the thunderstorms, hoping that she’s dreaming the chickadee instead.