Six Cats A Slayin'

When I walked through the door into the kitchen, I immediately spotted Alex at the table feeding Rosie. I stopped and watched for a moment. I didn’t think Alex had heard me enter the room, her attention appeared so fixed upon her child. I glanced to my right and saw Azalea standing near the stove. She was also watching Alex and the baby, and her expression was unreadable.

“Hello, Alex,” I said, my voice low. I greeted Azalea, and she nodded in response.

Alex offered me a wan smile as I bent to kiss her cheek. “Hi, Dad, how are you?” Rosie continued her noisy suckling at her mother’s breast.

“I’m fine,” I said. “How are you? Did you get all your errands done?” She nodded. “That’s good. Nice to have a break.” Alex nodded again. She seemed as dispirited as I had ever seen her.

I tried again. “Rosie seems to be doing fine, too. You’re taking such good care of her.”

Alex sighed. “Seems to me that she’s almost always hungry. The rate she’s going, she’ll be an Amazon by the time she’s sixteen.”

I squeezed her shoulder. I could see that she was tired, and I figured she wasn’t sleeping well. Laura had been a fussy baby, too, and I remembered the many nights of fractured sleep that her mother and I endured before she finally grew out of that stage.

“She’s like her aunt, Laura, that’s for sure,” I said as I took a chair opposite Alex and Rosie.

“How on earth did you manage with Laura?” Alex said, interest sparking briefly in her eyes.

“Jackie and I both went around dazed for months,” I said. “Eventually Laura started sleeping through the night, and we were able to get back to sleeping ourselves.”

“I hope Rosie starts sleeping more soon. All the trouble she has with colic, I guess.” Alex sighed. “I am so exhausted now, I don’t know what I’m doing half the time.”

I hesitated before I responded because I knew Alex was sensitive on the issue I was about to broach. Looking at her drawn face, though, I felt I had to speak up.

“I think you and Sean really need to rethink your decision about a nanny,” I said.

Azalea spoke before Alex could respond. “Now Miss Alex, you listen to Mr. Charlie. You’re wearing yourself out, and my cousin Lurene’s daughter Cherelle loves babies and would love to help you out. Don’t mean you’re not a good mama because you need help.” She smiled. “I had to have help with Kanesha, because the good Lord knows that child was a handful from the moment she came into this world and hasn’t stopped being one since. If I hadn’t had my own mama to help, I swear I would have left Kanesha on somebody’s doorstep just so I could sleep.”

Alex had started shaking her head the moment I began to speak, but she stilled the movement as Azalea talked. I hoped Azalea’s words would get through to my daughter-in-law. She obviously needed help with the baby, but she was a proud young woman who always wanted to show that she could do anything and do it well. But in this small bundle of fussiness I thought she finally had to realize that there were some challenges she might not be able to handle alone.

“You’re right.” Alex sighed. “Sean has been begging me to let him find help, but I wouldn’t let him.” Tears began to roll down her face. “I feel like such a failure.”

Azalea moved quickly to put an arm around Alex’s shoulders. She stroked Alex’s head, now bent toward her nursing child. “Now see here, you are not any kind of failure, you just hush that kind of talk. Looking after a fretful baby is a trial to anyone, and you stop feeling like it’s your fault.”

“Azalea’s right, sweetheart,” I said. “The best thing you can do for yourself is to have the strength to admit you need help. No one is going to fault you for that.”

“Thank you, Dad.” Alex didn’t appear to be wholly convinced by our assurances, but I hoped if we continued to encourage her, she would accept help.

Before I could say anything further, we all heard loud meows coming from another room. Only Diesel could produce that decibel level, and after a glance of apology to Alex and Azalea, I hurried from the room.

I took a couple of steps into the living room before I halted in amazement. Diesel sat on his hind legs in front of the drapes at the large picture window, batting futilely at kittens climbing the drapes. I counted quickly. Yes, all five of them clung to the drapes at various points about three feet high.

Diesel successfully batted one loose—George, I thought—and warbled in a threatening tone. He placed a large paw on top of the wriggling kitten and pinned him to the floor, even as he gazed up at the remaining four mountaineers.

“I’m here, boy.” I hurried to join Diesel at the drapes and started extracting the other kittens from the drapes and placing them inside their obviously ineffective corral.

“What am I going to do with you little monsters?” I said to the kittens, all of whom were now tussling with one another. Beside me Diesel chirped and meowed, no doubt in agreement. These kittens were proving more challenging than I had expected, and I had to get the situation under control.