The Five Seasons

As everyone knows, there are four official seasons: fall, winter, spring, and summer. Then there's those unofficial semi-seasons such as Indian Summer and Blackberry Winter that occur every couple of years. What I'm proposing is a fifth season, a season that can be counted on like flowers in the spring and leaves turning in the fall. This fifth season is Puke Season.

Every cat owner knows about Puke Season. It usually begins around late spring and runs through mid-summer, ending sometime after Independence Day. This is the time of year when cats shed and ingest an extraordinarily large amount of fur, which then gets regurgitated on your favorite rug or carpet...or shoes or jacket or pillow or quilt. Cats puke anyway, sometimes I swear it's because they think its fun to listen to us curse, but during Puke Season, it's a 24/7 activity.

Puke Season came late this year at my house. We sailed through spring and summer with only an odd hairball here and there, but for the last two weeks, I've been on my knees with the papertowels and cleaner several times a day. Fall is my favorite season, but not when it coincides with Puke Season.