Moca's Rocks

Arizona rocks, sitting on the white stripe in a roadway south of Tucson.Husband recently returned from Arizona bringing rocks for our cat. Weird, but true.

It all began back in 2002, when we drove down to Arizona to visit Husband's mom and stepdad. Husband enjoys the desert, enjoys running, and enjoys the color of green copper. He also enjoys bringing home roadkill.

Not real roadkill, silly. But he finds and collects interesting [to him] things while out running, which he refers to as "roadkill." The most recent roadkill prior to the pictured rocks was a backless rolling chair. I kid you not. It's stashed under our grand piano at this very moment.

I'm sure you'll understand why I consider the hauling home of "roadkill" to be a worrisome habit. And, to be honest, entertaining.

So, back to the history. While running through the desert south of Tucson five summers ago, Husband spotted the coppery green on the rocks beside the road and brought them back to his mom's house. We drove the rocks home in the car, setting them out on the Pakistani mini-carpet, given to me by my Finnish missionary friends, sitting atop our American Southwest-style dresser from Pier 1 Imports. (No one can fault us for being monocultural in decor.)

It wasn't much later that we noticed Moca had fallen in love with the rocks. She jumped up on the dresser and meowed and purred and rubbed on the edges of the rocks, scratching her cheeks and gums against the granite. It's a daily habit, several times a day, encouraged by our rewarding her with pats and lovey pet talk.

So, when Husband arrived home from his most recent trip to the Tucson area, he brought in the equivalent of two bucketsful of copper-hued rocks. And he got up at 4 a.m. to wash them off and set them out to dry before placing the choicest ones on the dresser carpet.

Husband is happy. Moca is happy.

And I give you yet another piece of data proving that I share this household with two unique and quirky beings.