Monday, April 23, 2012

Gift From Kitty


Have you ever had a pet bring you a ‘gift’ from the outdoors? Recently my mother informed me of a neighbor’s cat. The neighbor in question had forewarned her that his outdoor friendly cat likes to catch live snakes and bring them home. The neighbor also expressed there might be reason to believe the cat could indeed bring these live snakes to others in the neighbor it’s well acquainted with. When my mom relayed the conversation to me it got us to thinking of a special time in my early teens when my cat Tony at the time, had brought us half a dead squirrel. No I don’t mean it was half alive, I mean it was literally the top half of the poor little creature’s body. Pure suburban road kill that an adorable black and white cat had dropped between us girls so proudly and pleased with himself.

Instantly my mother and I had begun hysterically jumping around and screaming. This wasn’t like a dead bird we’ve unfortunately had cats catch and bring into the house before. Perhaps though the comic relief moment looking back on it, was when my freshly visually impaired father came into the room with a wad of paper towels ready to take care of the dead animal. He was of course asking us where it was and not thinking of how he couldn’t see, we simply pointed and screamed “It’s over there!” Tony, my cat at the time who so thoughtfully brought this present to us looked as puzzled as a cat can from all the commotion. Maybe that’s why he opted to pick it up and move it before my dad could pin-point where we were attempting to direct him as he was asking us, “Over where?”. It was when Tony picked it up to move it did my mother and I begin a whole new round of screams. Although we did manage to calm ourselves somewhat (not really, but let’s pretend shall we?) enough to finally inform my dad where the half-squirrel was and eventually the poor dead animal was taken care of.

Looking back on it, my parents and I do have a good laugh over the experience now. My cat Tony is no longer with us, hasn’t been for quite a number of years. However, his presence is most certainly marked permanently in our memories thanks to that unforgettable moment.

--XOXO, Jane