Music and Cats

When someone mentions penguins (and doesn’t that happen often?), most people think of Antarctica. I think of our bathroom. That’s where we keep our penguins. The formally-dressed birds in our black and white bathroom are toys: a pair of squishy terrycloth sponge penguins; a tall, rather somber Guatemalan cotton penguin; the blue, yellow and fuschia penguin, which giggles when you squeeze it, that Paul brought me from the San Diego Zoo; a Zibbies rockhopper from our friend Robin; the beanbag-bodied “personal penguin” that came with the Boynton book I gave Paul last year.

I love the words of Your Personal Penguin, which are also the lyrics to a song recorded by former Monkee Davy Jones:

Your Personal Penguin

I like you a lot
You’re funny and kind
So let me explain
What I have in mind

I want to be your personal penguin
I want to walk right by your side
I want to be your personal penguin
I want to travel with you far and wide

Wherever you go, I’ll go there too
Here and there and everywhere and always with you
I want to be your personal penguin
from now on
 
Now, lots of other penguins seem to do fine
In a universe of nothing but ice
But if I could be yours
And you could be mine
Our cozy little world would be twice as nice

I want to be your personal penguin
I want to talk with you night and day
I want to be your personal penguin
I want to listen to whatever you say

Look at these wings
So perfect to hold you
I’d like to say again what I have already told you
Let me be your personal penguin
from now on

Wherever you go, I’ll go there too
Here and there and everywhere and always with you
Please may I be your personal penguin?
Imagine me your personal penguin!
I wanna be your personal penguin
from now on.

– Sandra Boynton

Lucky for me, Paul agreed that I could be his personal penguin. And I don’t even have to wear the suit.

To open the Advent calendar window for Day 7, click here:

These two painted Oaxacan penguins spend most of their time on top of our television, where they have yet to explode. They do, however, like to dance. Sometimes, it appears that they’re been trying to fly… but that could be Sergei’s doing.

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