Rocky had heard the other animals playing in a special place. It looked like sheer heaven with bowls of cat food mounded with different colored tidbits of yummy looking morsels. The cats even had their own tree houses. It was all free. No dangerous dogs lurked about, no skunks lurking in the bushes stinking up the place, only passing turtles lugging their houses with them.

His mother had warned him not to venture past the tree line unless it was after dark and no humans were out. But something more was drawing him near.

He longed to know what went on in the great wide world, so much more than what he knew about in his narrow neck of the woods. Listening, he watched humans digging around in the dirt and marveling over a ripe red tomato or the size of a yellow squash. It all seemed like such hard work. Why didn't they just eat the free cat food just like he did?

Then later, when the man and woman rested on the patio drinking their iced tea with friends, he heard strange things talked about - the economy and politics, whatever that was - life after death, spirits and angels. And it all sounded interesting. Lofty and surreal. Especially angels. He loved the way some of those big words rolled off the end of his tongue. "Surrrrreaaaallll." And he said to the blue-tail lizard darting past, "So that's who that is standing guard in the hosta below the house where the cat the humans call Callie lives." And he couldn't wait to run home to tell his twin sister. "Rockette, there are angels who watch over us and long to look into things that happen down here on this place the humans call earth. Everyone has their own guardian angel who helps in the daily walk. And this is how we pray." And with that, Rocky folded his hands and bowed his head to pray, just as he'd seen the human's little daughter Angelina do before she ate her tomato and squash.

"But what about the angel wings?" asked Rockette. "What are they for if the angel just sits in the hosta all day?"

"They help the angels to fly, silly," said Rocky. "Haven't you ever watched the birds and hawks?"

"But so far, all you've seen that angel do is sit there in the big broad leaves and pray," said Rockette. "What do you think it all means?"

"I'm not exactly sure. But when I heard the human's little girl Angelina pray, it had something to do with not looking a gift horse in the mouth - whatever a horse is - and something to do with thanking God for our daily bread, loving one another, voting out all of the corrupt politicians who hang out in cat houses, and making sure Uncles Sam's guardian angel helps him pay his debts on time so he won't have his wings clipped and be living in the dog house along with Angelina's big brother Cody."

"But," said Rockette, confusion masking her whiskered face. "I thought there were no dogs around that place, only cats and cat houses."

"I know. I'm confused on that one myself. I'm still trying to learn the human language along with Angelina. They don't always say what they mean, or mean what they say. Some words even have a double meaning. Evidently, some humans can be politicians and some politicians can be skunks and according to Angelina's parents, the promises the politicians make with their lofty words are the most surreal. One thing's for certain. We need to be praying about voting the skunks out or there goes the neighborhood and Angelina's guardian angel is already working overtime because so far, she's never left the Hosta."