Fruitcake?

Yesterday when I arrived home I heard our one cat Morticia Adams moaning. I enquired as what was wrong and she sadly told me that she had inadvertently been closed out in the catio.
I went inside and opened the window for her to come in. She jumped up on the window ledge at the closed window and told me that it was too far to walk the one and a half meters to the open one. I obligingly opened the window where she was sitting. After inspecting the window and window frame for at least five minutes she sauntered in without a ‘by your leave’ or a ‘thank you’.

                 Morticia Adams. Butter can't melt in my mouth.

As I was lying in bed thinking about the incident I realized that as a young person, older people who spoke to their animals were regarded as being a bit of a fruitcake.
I now not only think that people who talk to their animals are normal but I am beginning to understand the answers.

The Times they are a changed

I had occasion to walk to work this morning. As I passed the local high school I watched as the children’s bags were searched as they entered the gates. I looked at the high palisade fences topped with razor wire surrounding the grounds. What has happened to being a child? When I was at school it was regarded as a place of learning and safety. No fences or  guards to search all who entered.  The playing fields open to all to enjoy on a Saturday or Sunday stroll. School property was like hallowed ground.
I looked at the children arriving all armed with smart phones, tablets (the electronic kind, I hope) and laptops. Access to the world via the internet. Literally everything at their fingertips, both good and bad.
The irony is that with all the freedom of‘rights’ children of today are endowed with, they have to enjoy them in prison like enclosures.
What I did not see were any bicycles.  Don’t school children ride them anymore?  But I suppose that is because it is unsafe to exercise that particular ‘right’.
Passing by all these learners I was struck that there was a total lack of manners. No good morning Sir or Mam. Walking four or five abreast on the sidewalk with no consideration of those others walking in the opposite direction being forced to step aside. Shouting and screaming to get the attention of friends on the opposite side of the road.
The times certainly have changed.