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If you say the name “Popeye,” you will immediately think duct tape. He loved the stuff. He covered his clothes with it; he covered his legs with it; he covered his little cart with it. You couldn’t ever tell what Popeye had with him. It was always a big duct tape blob. Popeye had a

There are 8 million rats in Paris.

This cat-sitting has deteriorated rapidly into a major imposition. It’s been a full week and not a word from her. Where is Ella Mae? Maybe something happened to her. When I go over there tonight, I’m going to check and see if I can find something that might tell me how to reach her. I’ve

She’s been gone five days. Ella Mae said she’d be home late Wednesday, and it’s now Friday afternoon. I had to buy more cans of cat food at the market because I used up everything she had left. The apartment is beginning to smell. She said I didn’t have to change the cat box —

Monday Our nearest neighbor Ella Mae and her 14-year-old cat Msr. Snuff live just across the little courtyard from us. At least Ella Mae says there is a Msr. Snuff in there. He’s an inside cat, and I’ve never seen him. I’ve never been to her apartment, nor she to mine, but she’s a pleasant

I eventually ask Pierre about our building owners. Heloise, the one with the hearing problem, has been partially deaf for more than 20 years. It happened tragically on her first — and last — trip to the United States. She was convinced to attend the Colorado State Fair by the daughter of her hostess, who

The elevator in our ancient building is one of those old-fashioned clunky types, with a folding gate. Our building on Rue Ravignon went up in the late 1800s and I wonder if the elevator is that old too. The owners have few rules for the residents, but the ones they do have are absolutes. And

Our apartment is exactly what we hoped for. It’s cheap. We like that. And cheap means tiny. There’s one room for eating, sleeping, living. There’s a small square kitchen off to one side. I can stand in the middle of it and touch all four walls. There’s a separate bathroom with a shower. And best

Bernie loves to travel, is intelligent, curious, affectionate, has a real sense of adventure, makes few demands, is willing to try foreign foods, and has a quirky sense of humor. He weighs 120 pounds, is four feet long from his Saint Bernard-type nose to his little scarred stump of a cut-off tail. His giant bulldog-looking