I’m not so sure about luck.

Lucky Charms are excellent. Luck dragons* rock my socks. Four leaf clovers, Irish jigs, the Waterboys and green oatmeal** make for a very happy March 17th.

But as for “luck” itself, the idea that things happen according to some blind roll of the cosmic dice…I’m not buying it. This St. Patrick’s week, we celebrate a string of adoptions that aren’t so much lucky as blessed.

Those with elephantine memory will remember Bugsy as one of 2009’s Kentucky Eight. Bugsy, we hardly knew blogged ye before ye found yer home. It would seem that, two and a half years later, there’s nothing “lucky” about Bugsy’s charms. Clearly, he and his mama were matched by a force greater than luck.  I’ll let Bugsy’s mum, Jacki from Jersey, spin the tale for you:

“Dear Jonathan and all,

“I have wanted to bring you up to date on the activities of Mr. Bugsy Malone. He is a piece of work!

“Bugsy plays hockey with his food. After a few bites, he takes a piece of his dry food out, bats it up and down the hardwood floors, eats that one and gets another.

“For a rescue cat, Bugsy is very fussy about his food. He won’t eat canned food of any sort, won’t eat cooked chicken or fish. Sometimes he will have the juice off the fancy salmon I have. I tell him that my pair of fancy-schmancy, pedigreed Siamese cats ate anything I gave them! Where does he the rescue cat get off on that??

“In spite of being an indoor cat, Bugsy’s predatory instincts are high. He has caught 6 mice, 1 garter snake, and a large millipede. He goes down the stairs to my basement hall for his nocturnal expeditions. Lately the mice seemed to have learned something, so his catch has gone down.

“Bugsy turns up his nose at most cat toys. But, he likes the feathers on a string at the end of a stick, and the laser mouse is a great favorite of his. When he wants me to play, he sits and stares at me. Some times I tell him I can’t play, since I have to work. He gets disgusted, then. He follows the laser around and around as if chasing his tail. Then I aim it down the hall, and he madly goes after it, skidding on the wood floors.

“He is a catnip head. Sometimes I put it in a paper grocery bag. He likes that: he goes inside and stays a long time, perhaps sleeping.

“In my family room, I have two 8′ sliding doors quite close to the ground. The chipmunks love to run just outside the glass and drive poor Bugsy nuts. Sometimes there are several and he gets so agitated that once or twice he has hurled himself at the glass and hit his head with a loud thunk. The squirrels do this too, but the chipmunks take the cake. We also have woodchucks and deer who come in the patio just to annoy Bugsy!

“This may sound like a busy cat, but he spends a lot of time sleeping and snoozing. He is not a very dignified feline. He sleeps a lot of the time on his back with a paw over his eyes. Another favorite activity of his is to interfere with changing the sheets on the bed. Sometimes it’s so bad we have to put him in ‘jail,’ the bathroom.

“So long for now with this tale of Bugsy.

– Jacki from Jersey, owned by that cat.”

What’s luck got to do with it? About as much as Bugsy has to do with that canned food crud. No, this ain’t no stinkin’ luck: all the rainbows in the world couldn’t lead to this kind of love-gold. Something and Someone much bigger than luck is behind it all – and behind (and in front of, and beside) each of us, human and feline, this “lucky” day and always.

The leprechauns can keep their luck; we and the cats will stick with blessings. And green oatmeal. Top o’ the lifetime to ya, Bugsy.

*If you know what a luck dragon is, I love you and we should be best friends.
**If you, too, grew up eating green oatmeal on March 17th, I love you and we should be best friends and roommates in the mental institution.

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