THE CAT SIDE: Cat Columnist Gears Up For Big Game

FURRY FAN TAKES NATIONAL ANTHEM TO HEART

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Pass the cheese dip and vacate your hiney from my recliner. Super Bowl Sunday is on the horizon.

It’s almost as good as the Fourth of July, this Super Bowl day that’s practically a holiday. There’s football, snacks galore and you don’t have to buy any presents.

Watching football is quality time for the cat butler and me. I’ve got my easy chair and he’s got his rocker.

We make a friendly wager.

At halftime he might sprinkle a little catnip on my scratching post. That’s nachos to a tomcat.

One thing that gets my fur in a wad during these Super Bowls is this: When they show the crowd and the players during the national anthem, some people don’t put their hand on their heart.

You see the same thing at baseball games, parades, wherever the “Star Spangled Banner” is played.

I, Yakov Boat Dock, say, “Is this a great country or what?”

My manservant and I put our paws over our hearts even when the national anthem is on TV. You’d think the players and fans could do it at a big shindig such as the Super Bowl.

I’d be ticked off if I was Francis Scott Key. How hard is it to place your hand slightly above your belly button for one minute?

I’ve only graced this planet for seven years, but it seems like, for some Americans, placing a palm on the ticker during the national anthem has fallen from favor. Like it’s not cool.

Shoot, you’d be history in some countries if you acted like, “Hey, no big deal,” during their national anthem, if you stood around with your hands in your pockets.

Try that in North Korea.

We’ve always had our problems here in the land of the rocket’s red glare. But I,Boat Dock, wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, except maybe Fiji in the wintertime.

You’ve got your humans who don’t put a hand on their heart when they hear “Oh, say can you see.”

Then you’ve got a guy such as Ray Lewis, my favorite NFL player and outstanding linebacker for the Ravens.

During the national anthem at the AFC championship game, there was Ray, not only with a hand on his big heart, but singing along at the top of his lungs.

I’ll bet he didn’t sing “land of the free-EEE” at the end, like some screeching hyena.

That just kills me.

This is indeed a great country, and a free country.

You can do whatever you want during the “Star Spangled Banner,” such as put your hand on your heart, play with your phone or do the Hokey Pokey.

So when you put your right hand in the chip bowl and shake it all about, how ’bout a little respect for our national anthem on Super Bowl Sunday?

I’m just a tomcat, but you can bet your Pepsi commercial my paw will be where it belongs come anthem time.

Tell me one thing. What’s a rampart? I’ll have to look it up. Ravens 34-28.

BOAT DOCK IS FELINE OUTDOORS COLUMNIST FOR NWA MEDIA.

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Outdoor, Pages 6 on 01/31/2013