Photo by Geoff Carter
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, waits now while the keeper wrestles with the remnants of stray evolutionary residue, some of which encourages migration as a Wisconsin winter survival move, and some that exerts a powerful signal to go to bed and stay there as in hibernation.
With some experience in the former—having spent portions of previous winters in either Florida or Texas, the keeper is reluctant to travel to locations where the daily demonstrated stupidity is even greater than it is in Repub narcissistic-dominated, minority-represented Wisconsin.
By some of the same reasoning, the keeper resists going to a permanent winter bed lest he miss witnessing the ongoing political contortions of the likes of Johnson, Gableman, Vos, Prehn, and a host of others as they perform obscene gerrymandered feats that harm, haunt and even kill the Wisconsin citizenry.
There must be stray remnants from other twigs on the evolutionary shrub that might contribute to easing the impact of a Wisconsin winter for humans: the keeper looks at Kickass and thinks of all of the dogs he represents—comfortable on the couches, not the least concerned about full food dishes, visiting the cold out-of-doors only to mark territory and perform necessary bodily functions, and in turn asked only to play an occasional game of “fetch.”
That’s It! The keeper’s winter survival plan is to be a dog. He is sure that Phyllis will understand and keep his food dish full, take him for walks; and if she tosses out a tennis ball, the keeper is ready to run after it.
