I went with a friend to a teahouse in Chengdu one day. At one time it had been a Buddhist monastery, so perhaps its transition to teahouse was a step in the wrong direction, but at least it had survived the Cultural Revolution.
There was a beautiful, wizened old woman selling gorgeous paintings from a tent cubicle thing. One in particular caught my eye- goldfish swimming near lilies, on a magnificent scroll. The vivid oranges and greens and even the white space really appealed to me. With my friend interpreting for me, I discovered that the woman's husband painted and she sold. I asked her how much she wanted for the goldfish one, and she told me to make her an offer. I figured I would start low, let her highball me, and meet her in the middle, so I offered the modest sum of 60 renminbi, (around 12 or 15 dollars), thinking she would be aghast and counteroffer 120, and I would purchase it for 90. To my surprise and dismay, she agreed to the 60. No haggling. I felt bad. Then, she reached for her cane, and slowly and proudly got up off her stool and shuffled over to the painting, grabbed it off the wall and rolled it up, then turned and shuffled back to her seat. She was tiny, and bent over almost double. She reminded me of a less-green Yoda, more than anything else. So I carried that painting with me to Tibet and back to Beijing, and almost lost it when I left it in the care of my friend Corey. He left it on our bus while I was away dealing with luggage, and I made him run out and get it when I found out what he had done.
Anyways, Poe apparently can't tell the difference between painted goldfish and real ones, and she clawed the painting. It's not totally ruined, though there are now little gashes, tears really, that the artist never intended. That was a while ago. Then last week she knocked over one of our fancy lamps, tearing the paper lampshade around it. And I am not sure, but I also think she chewed the cord on my PS2 controller, rendering it more or less inoperative. She is a little maelstrom of havoc.
Oh well, I don't hold it against her. She is just being a cat. I am a bear, and thus I have been known to cause a little havoc of my own, and gabrielle is quite tolerant of me. Just today I spilled soy milk all over the place, narrowly missing her computer and mouse.