But Where's The Cat?

Nanci Griffith/Emmylou Harris: Across the Great Divide



But--let me tell you my cat joke.
It's very short and simple.
A hostess is giving a dinner party
and she's got a lovely five-pound
T-bone steak sitting on the sideboard
in the kitchen waiting to be cooked
while she chats with the guests
in the living room
--has a few drinks and whatnot.
But then she excuses herself
to go into the kitchen to cook
the steak---and it's gone.
And there's the family cat, in the corner, sedately washing it's face.
"The cat got the steak," Barney said.
"Did it? The guests are called in.
They argue about it. The steak is gone,
all five pounds of it. There sits
the cat, looking well-fed and cheerful.
"Weigh the cat," someone says.
They've had a few drinks;
it looks like a good idea.
So they go into the bathroom
and weigh the cat on the scales.
It reads exactly five pounds.
They all perceive this reading and a guest says, "okay, that's it. There's the steak." They're satisfied that they know what happened now. They've got empirical proof. Then a qualm comes to one of them and he says, puzzled, "But where's the cat?”
--Philip K. Dick
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a twofer from the Esplanade above Bass Canyon
Thumper and 007