Aliens among us

[blatherskite]

So today, I'm waiting for the tea to steep and playing "cat fishing". That's where you dangle a string or troll it past the cat, and the cat leaps upon it like a starving bass. Katrine, mighty huntress, is all batshit crazy over this old bootlace she pulled out of somewhere—Best Cat Toy Ever—and becomes Concentration Incarnate whenever I dangle it before her. Much pouncing ensues, with the tempo growing increasingly frenzied as the bootlace stubbornly refuses to be caught.

Then in mid-pounce, she skids to a halt so she can groom her paw. Lick, lick... okay, I'm ready to be Mighty Huntress again.

I'm imagining this scenario in the long, sad history of great moments in evolution: Somewhere out on the Serengeti, the alpha female lioness* finally brings down the antelope, and is just about to administer the coup de grace when suddenly—grooming emergency. "Honey, would you mind holding the antelope a moment while I lick my paw?" Antelope escapes, lioness starves, lioness version 2.0 carries on the genome.

* The males are layabout good for nothings, existing mostly to provide semen. The females would probably get along better without them.

Or imagine a Larry Niven story, with the Kzinti warriors (basically giant cats) getting into hot and heavy combat with the Terran Space Marines, when all of a sudden it's time for a collective grooming break. Much like the Britons in Asterix, losing England to the Romans because they insisted on stopping the fight for their daily 4 PM tea break.

There are aliens among us, and I'm not always sure which of us is most alien.