I lived alone much of my life, and have had to deal with lousy jobs,
lousy men, unemployment, rehab after a bad accident, and the baggage of
a sordid upbringing. Through all this, my Fritzie, who left to enter the
Court of our God/dess last December, stood by me. He was fiercely loyal,
perhaps nowhere more so than in evaluating the men I chose to date.

Sal was a hardcore Trekkie who lived for conventions, never bothered to
find a job and sponged off his father for money to go see whatever
sci-fi person came to town. He's come to my apartment-a nasty little
efficiency with barely room to breathe, but dirt cheap-and lounge around
all day watching videos. Fritzie would climb to a high space and
divebomb him, right in his paunchy gut. For hours; and hours; and more
hours. No matter how Sal tried to place himself, he could not escape
Fritzie, who thought he was a toy, not a sentient being to respect.
David, a friend of Sal's, couldn't decide between me and a nasty woman
who was excellent at verbal emasculation. Fritzie swore at him and
slapped his hand away every time DAvid tried to pet him. Jeff, my
experiment in cohabitation that went horribly wrong, got hissed at
regularly. Fritzie would walk into the computer room casually, sit next
to Jeff, and hurl obscenities at him that would peel the wallpaper.
These three relationships were doomed to fail.

Mitch, a fellow from Toronto, did not earn trampolining, nor swats, nor
cusswords. In fact, I first thought Fritzie accepted him until I saw
that when he visited, Fritzie thoroughly ignored him. Never bothered to
come for a petting or a treat the way he did when my buddies "Aunt
Sandy" and "Uncle Randy" came by. always sat by me, never Mitch. I came
to realize that Fritzie had total contempt for him, and I learned why:
Mitch gave off way bad vibes. I learned that he was a white supremacist
involved with the "Christian Identity" movement and that he believed
that the Holocaust was a bunch of horsesh*t and propaganda set up by the
US government. My father was a political prisoner under Hitler and had
the tattoo, and all the baggage that only the Nazis could give. I broke
it off so that I wouldn't get arrested for assault & battery on my next
visit.

When I met Louie he came up to my place after about ten days, and met
Fritzie for the first time. Without a word he went to the bag of food
and fed him. Fritzie was all over him afterward, and even slept with him
while we watched the idiot box. After another ten days Louie proposed.
We'll celebrate our second anniversary next month.

As a postscript: our third date was to a party hosted by David, and Sal
was there as well. It was announced that Louie would be coming with a
date, and I'd be the date; and when the shock wore off and we arrived,
the first question from Sal was, "Does she still have that cat?" "You
mean Fritzie?" Louie asked innocently, having heard long ago of the
trampolining. Sal walked away, white as a sheet, and you could swear he
was shivering.

Blessed be,

Baha