ladybugs are best eaten whole

Today, Gilly caught a bug.

Paul and I are so proud.

And also sorry for the bug, which was a ladybug and quite cute as far as bugs go. Had it been a spider or other less attractive insect, Paul and I would not have been sorry in the slightest.

When it comes down to it, Gilly has always been a hunter. One time when we lived in the apartment on Pinehurst we ordered pizza, and we were too lazy to take it all the way down to the garbage. I know that makes us sound really, really lazy, but you had to take the elevator or the stairs down to the first floor and then go out the back door and down these slatted metal stairs to this patio area where they kept the garbage cans. And on this particular night it was probably raining or snowing or neither of us was willing to put on pants.

So, the pizza box was placed on top of the stove, because our counter space was about the size of two shoe-boxes put together and our beloved Kitchen-Aid was renting the space. And after I had put the pizza box on the stove and started my pre-bed ritual of spending 45 minutes in the bathroom washing my face and feeling bad about not having curly hair, there was a muffled sound of scraping cardboard coming from the kitchen.

And there was Gilly, gray stripey tail waving triumphantly below the stove lamp, nose rooting amongst dry pizza crust and half empty containers of garlic sauce. She's never really been a human food type of cat, so I like to imagine that she was pretending to be a jungle cat stalking in a jungle forest where there was perhaps a recently opened jungle Papa John's.

Probably I should have hissed or shooed her away. It's probably not respectable to have your cat sitting in a pizza box on your stove. But I did not shoo, and I did not hiss. I took pictures.

And today, after Gilly defied gravity and her sagging, fur covered belly in the name of KILL KILL KILLING THE LADYBUG, Paul and I clapped. We cheered. And Paul sang:

If you have on gray fur
And you have stripey legs
And you killed a ladybug
Please stand up
And purr inside the circle, circle, circle
Purr inside the circle
Then sit down

Gilly is licking her paws right now. Sissy looks a little mad that Gilly didn't share the ladybug with her, but ladybugs are best eaten whole, in one gulp.

I've heard.