Puzzle Cat and the New Springtime
It was Thursday night in Dean Feed’s apartment and of course lots of people were there for Cutie’s Office Hours, when students, faculty, and staff come to share fruit tea, chocolates, and chicken soup, and—of course!—to play with Cutie (Puzzle Cat’s alternate identity) and Yuki (Kiki-Jian’s alternate identity).
Usually it’s just fun interactions among the visitors and the cats, but tonight was a little different. While everyone chatted, a slight, dark-haired, serious-looking Latina named Bianca holds Puzzle Cat, and with tears welling up, spoke softly while looking directly into his large eyes. With some of the guests clamoring for her attention, and the general level of noise in the crowded apartment, Dean Feed couldn't hear what Bianca said, but—quite unusually for him, given the weekly gathering of his "fans"—Puzzle Cat paid rapt attention to Bianca and not to anyone else. Later, after the gathering broke up, Dean Feed asked Bianca to stay, and from her got the whole depressing story.
Bianca was well known as a girl with a good heart and a strong religious upbringing that left her with a solid ethical foundation and sense of responsibility. Her main problem in college has been keeping to deadlines (she’s already been downgraded severely in two classes for turning in late assignments).
Now, here on March 12, with commencement only a little less than two months away, her overall GPA hung by a thread, threatening to derail her graduation. She seriously tried to "clean up her act" with respect to turning assignments in on time but her tough family responsibilities (she’s been raised by her mother since losing her father two years ago to combat in Afghanistan) have meant she’s devoted a lot of time to helping with her infant brother and three younger sisters.
The problem was that she had gotten into trouble over a deadline again, this time with the infamous "Iron Professor," Wyms in sociology (Bianca’s minor).
Professor Wyms, approaching her eighty-second birthday (March 15, three days away), is venerated by colleagues and students, throughout LAS College, as a caring but stern disciplinarian with extremely strict standards about the course requirements as stated in the syllabus.
Due to increasing problems with memory and other mental functions, though, the Professor had decided to retire at the end of this spring semester, telling everyone, "This will be a new life for me, and this is my new springtime!"
"But this past Monday," Bianca continued, fighting back tears, "I ran close to the deadline completing my term paper proposal. On the syllabus, it said 'Due by 9:00 a.m., Monday, March 9, at the sociology office. Have your submission checked and verified by someone in authority to confirm you made the deadline. No exceptions!'"
“Dean Feed, since my mom works nights, I needed to stay at home with my sister, who’s got the mumps, so I pulled an 'all-nighter' and finished the paper Monday at about 8:30 in the morning.
I didn’t think I could make it all the way over to campus in time so I just popped out to take it a couple of blocks directly to Dr. Wyms in the faculty housing on Harrison and give it to the doorman. He checked his watch, noted it was 8:55 a.m., said, 'Well, you just made it,' and said he’d take it directly to Dr. Wyms.
But then I got an email from Dr. Wyms later Monday afternoon telling me my paper was late by almost an hour and it was disqualified! How could that be? The worst thing is that if you don’t get the proposal approved, you can’t write the term paper and, together, that’s about half my course grade!! What can I do? They say that Dr. Wyms never changes a grading decision, ever!"
"And you were disclosing all this to Cutie?" Dean Feed asked, eyes twinkling.
Bianca looked down, reddening. "Yes, I guess he’s a good listener. But he’s also Puzzle Cat, right? They say he solves crimes, so I thought..."
Dean Feed didn't know what to say, but it wasn't necessary. Puzzle Cat had heard enough and ran over to behind the couch with Kiki-Jian to confer (PC sang in Cat, Kiki just listened) and they touched noses.
Then Kiki leapt to the kitchen cabinet, then up to the top of the refrigerator, where he nosed the plastic clock on the refrigerator forward over to the edge to fall to the floor. Outraged, Feed began to scold Kiki in her native language (Taiwanese), but through her anger, finally grasped what the two cats were urgently trying to tell her.
She went to Bianca, placed a comforting arm around her shoulders and told her, "I think you’ll be all right. I think this is just a misunderstanding." She went into the next room to phone her friend Professor Wyms and, after apologizing for intruding on her class, told her the story.
They had a good laugh over the whole thing and Feed returned to the living room, telling Bianca that her paper would be accepted as "on time." Bianca clutched Puzzle Cat and Kiki-Jian and her tears wet their soft fur.
It was a warm and happy scene for all, so there really remains only that one small question we always have…
How did Puzzle Cat know?
