(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Caturday Pootie Diary: It's the great pumpkin, Freddie [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-21 Freddie walked past the island chairs in the kitchen, belly full, in no hurry to do anything or go anywhere. I watched him amble and was mildly jealous at how relaxed and unworried he was. He paused when he reached the spot where there kitchen became the family room. There were two largish pumpkins sitting on the floor in front of him. “What is this?” he asked, leaning forward to sniff the one closest to him. “Pumpkins!” I said, happily. “We’re almost ready for Halloween!” A gentle reminder of how we do things: 🐱🐶🐦 Do not troll the diary. If you hate pootie diaries, leave now. No harm, no foul. Please do share pics of your fur kids! If you have health/behavior issues with your pets, feel free to bring it to the community. Pooties are cats; Woozles are dogs. Birds... are birds! Peeps are people. Whatever happens in the outer blog STAYS in the outer blog. If you’re having “issues” with another Kossack, keep it “out there.” This is a place to relax and play; please treat it accordingly. There are some pics we never post: snakes, creepy crawlies, any and all photos that depict or encourage human cruelty toward animals. These are considered “out of bounds” and will not be tolerated. If we alert you to it, please remember that we do have phobic peeps who react strongly to them. If you keep posting banned pics...well then...the Tigress will have to take matters in hand. Or, paw. He rolled his eyes. “Isn’t this over yet? There have been costumes, and scary stories, and scary books, and scary decorations, and COSTUMES — “ “That was five minutes and only that one time.” He frowned up at me. “Only one time this year,” I clarified. Satisfied, he smelled the pumpkin again. “Am I supposed to eat this?” he wondered. “You can, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t.” “Is it some kind of chicken?” “Does it smell like chicken?” I asked. He smelled it again. “No,” he said. “But it — “ he stretched his neck to the top of it and smelled the stem “— smells familiar. Like I had it with chicken.” I nodded. “At least one of the wet foods we’ve tried had pumpkin in it. But you didn’t like it.” “If it had something in it that looked like this, I can see why.” I rolled my eyes. “It was just little bits and it’s good for you. Helps move the mail.” “I don’t get mail. Except that one time.” I knew exactly what he was talking about — Chewy had sent him a birthday card. “I’m not talking about mail,” I said. He frowned at me. “I’m talking about pooping. Pumpkin helps you poop. It’s full of fiber.” He sat and regarded the pumpkins. “Pooping is important,” he agreed. I eased myself to the floor next to him, and patted one of the pumpkins. “Pumpkins are great,” I said. “You can roast and eat the flesh. You can roast and eat the seeds. You can make cake, or pasta, or flavor your coffee. It’s a very good vegetable.” He lifted a paw and gave it a thoughtful lick. “Chicken is better,” he said. “But less of a vegetable.” I said, dryly. “So you are going to eat these pumpkins?” he asked. “Not these pumpkins,” I explained, rolling one of the pumpkins onto my lap. “The best pumpkins for eating are the smaller, sugar pumpkins. These are going to be carved into jack-o-lanterns.” Freddie didn’t look up from his grooming. “You’ve seen them before,” I said. “I’m sure you have. This isn’t your first Halloween.” He snorted into the fur of the shoulder he was licking. “I don’t pay attention to all your human foolishness,” he said. I snorted right back at him. “I see how you watch us,” I told him. “You pay attention to everything.” He straightened. “Explain,” he demanded, simply. “The night before Halloween,” I started, “because I have to work on Halloween day, I have to do it the night before, I will hollow out these pumpkins and we will carve faces into them. Then on Halloween night, we’ll stick candles inside,” I paused and considered that, “Actually,” I corrected, “we’ll use battery powered fake candles. For safety.” “Uh-huh,” he said, looking like he was losing interest. “Then we’ll put them on the porch so the trick-or-treaters know we’re open for business.” His attention focused on me suddenly and sharply. “The small humans in costumes?” I nodded so hard my head might have come off. “It’s okay though,” I said, quickly. “They don't come inside.” “They ring the doorbell. All night. And they yell.” I nodded harder, trying to be reassuring. “They are polite too! They say ‘thank you!’” “You should leave the pumpkins inside,” he opined. “They can help you poop.” I shook my head. “I don’t need them for that. It’s one night a year. You’ll be fine.” He growled, low in his throat. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you make that noise,” I said, surprised. “Halloween is not until the week after next. Just forget about it for now. then later you can help me clean out the pumpkins and then you can sleep upstairs on my bed when all the noise happens.” “That sounds okay,” he said, after thinking about it for a minute. “It’ll be okay. We’ll snuggle after the little ones are home for the night. And then the next day we can start getting ready for Thanksgiving.” He perked up. “That’s the day with the big chicken!” “Yes! And then after that it’ll be time for Santa,” I said, petting him. “He brings the best treats,” Freddie said. “What?” “Nothing.” Happy Caturday, Peeps! Are you ready for Halloween? We have our pumpkins and our candy! It’s just a matter of making sure the candy makes it to the big day. Human treats are hard to resist. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/21/2200730/-Caturday-Pootie-Diary-It-s-the-great-pumpkin-Freddie?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/