Mrs. Boil Accepts a Calling

My earliest religious activity was my job as the choir director at the Mormon church down the block. It was my effort to be of service, to give back. My day job, which paid, was working as an operator at the phone company. When I tried to join the choir, my singing voice created consternation amongst the brethren. "Like a hinge" was the Bishop's description. So instead he called me as the choir director - "those who can, do - those who can't, teach". I accepted the calling on the condition "How Great Thou Art" was excluded from the repertoire. Elvis Presley ruined that song for me.

I liked to wear my mink vest to church when the choir was performing since I'd be at the front of the chapel, on the stand where everyone would see me. Marci Purr my best friend at the time (we lost touch when she became a Jehovah's Witness) thought the mink vest was excessive and she was against wearing fur, which was ironic her being a cat. Friends with low self-esteem can be so exhausting.

When leading the choir I liked to face the congregation. It allowed the choir to see my tail much better, which I used to keep tempo. Waving a baton is hard when you don't have opposable thumbs. Sister Purr said the way my tail flicked around it looked like I was very irritated. Sister Purr didn't support my calling. I knew she was very self-conscious of her singing voice (she'd had a shoe thrown at her one night when she was humming on her back porch) but she wouldn't even indulge me at least by moving her lips. She'd just sit there and stare with that stare only a cat can pull off.