"Hey there, Toby! ¿Que pasas?"
"Nada, mí amiga."
"Ai-yi-yi. ¡Verdad! mí amigo gato. Our company has gone home. I miss them very much."
"Me too!!! Gosh, that was fun to have all those laps to sit on. What's next?"
"Hmmm. Groceries. Appointments."
"Not the veterinarian!"
"Calm down, Toby. I'm untangling my own appointments. Two of my doctors from different practices quit medicine. It's a mess, getting my appointments lined up again with other practitioners."
"Why did they quit?"
"No one told me, but I've read here and there in newspapers that medical people are burned out and quitting. My primary physician didn't quit but when I asked about it he said he sold his practice to Penn Medicine. I asked him why, and he told me it was going through the pandemic, plus all the insurance issues and problems, the pressures of running a medical practice."
"Sounds like healthcare needs a doctor!" Toby exclaimed. He started to bat his tail with his front paw which he's been doing a lot lately. I worry that he's becoming neurotic from boredom. Then, he surprised me by stopping his game and said, "Maybe, doctors need a cat to talk to."
Sometimes, I think he's the student of a mystic.
Then he sat up, stretched, and said, "Will you need to be rescued from that phone tree like a few months ago?"
"Maybe. Will you be on standby to help me?"
"Sure, anything for a friend caught up in a phone tree. I'll call one of the arborists who helped me."
"How are you going to do that?" I asked, wondering what a cat could do about me stuck in a phone tree.
"I'll go to the window you leave open a crack and yowl as loud as I can. People pay attention when they hear a cat yowling."
"Well, thanks, Toby. I appreciate you having my back. Let's go to the window now and feed the squirrels and birds."
He clambered right up a chair back, then onto the windowsill.
"I'm all set," he said.
I went to the little pantry closet and returned with the seeds and peanuts that I toss to the birds and squirrels every morning. Toby was all aquiver with excitement. Keeping an eye on him, I raised the window, then the screen, and tossed out my two handfuls of bird seeds and one handful of peanuts to the area below between a bush and the exterior wall of my apartment. Then quickly shut the screen so the eager wildlife didn't become cat food. The small space behind the bush has afforded birds and squirrels some protection from hungry hawks flying through our campus area. Also, some small fallen tree branches I piled back there help keep hawks from dive-bombing our smaller friends.
I shut the screen, went back to my phone, and left Toby to enjoy his entertainment.
***
