Wait to begin until all three are<\/p>\n
in the kitchen,<\/p>\n
tails up. Pick up the triangle of bowls and<\/p>\n
place them on the counter as though<\/p>\n
they were one single unit.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Attempt to tear open the packet<\/p>\n
and fail — even though the tabs at the top<\/p>\n
would suggest otherwise. Instead,<\/p>\n
first try cutting<\/p>\n
it open with a knife.<\/p>\n
It won’t work.<\/p>\n
Only then will it be permissible to reach in the drawer<\/p>\n
for the scissors.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The scissors will be old and<\/p>\n
won’t easily cut.<\/p>\n
Find the sweet spot,<\/p>\n
that small area where the blades<\/p>\n
still come together as sharply as they did<\/p>\n
when they were new, and cut off<\/p>\n
the top of the faux aluminum pouch.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Squeeze just enough<\/p>\n
into each bowl so that it<\/p>\n
divides up perfectly in thirds.<\/p>\n
Say, “Here you are, ladies” and<\/p>\n
set the little troika back on the floor.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
All mewing will abruptly<\/p>\n
stop as they eat, and<\/p>\n
in the silence that follows,<\/p>\n
listen for the quiet slap-slap of their tongues as<\/p>\n
they hit the glass.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Only then may is it possible to<\/p>\n
walk away. Ritual completed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wait to begin until all three are in the kitchen, tails up. Pick up the triangle of bowls and place them on the counter as though they were one single unit. Attempt to tear open the packet and fail — even though the tabs…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5285,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5285"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141012"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145736,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141012\/revisions\/145736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}