Bill and Bindi
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Clever, Curious, Caring Cat
By Elaine Liner

Cats have personalities.
~T.S. Eliot

Bill is not my cat. He is my neighbors’ cat. When the neighbors are away skiing, hiking, surfing, and doing the outdoorsy things that young couples with good bodies do, they pay me, a sedentary playwright, to pet-sit Bill the cat and their big yellow dog named Bindi.

Bill and Bindi live under the same roof but are not natural companions. Bill seems to put up with Bindi in the way one tolerates that visiting relative who brings up religion and politics at family dinners.

The first time, the neighbor explained that my job would involve the simple tasks of feeding Bill and Bindi morning and evening, and taking Bindi, older and suffering some hip stiffness, for slow walks around the block. I was to use the green, clove-scented poo bags tied into the leash handle. (Keep reading)