by Trent Rosser
We have talked about Hunter the dog quite a bit. So now would probably be the best time to talk about Rascal the cat. When I describe Rascal, many different words comes to mind….jerk, conceited, self – absorbed, stuck up, and my favorite which I cannot put in the paper. It sounds a lot like jack wagon. Rascal is not just an ordinary cat. He is a beautiful cat, and he knows it. Gray and silver in color and his markings makes him look like a silver lynx. He wasn’t always a jerk though.
When my wife and I first met, she had a cat that escaped her house one night. Her cat just happened to be in heat. Unfortunately, the cat came back and when my wife moved in with me, she brought the cat, pregnant and all. I flat out told my wife that we were NOT going to keep another cat. We should not even have the first one and when the kittens are born, as soon as they are ready to go, they will be out of here. A while late it was that time. I was watching TV. While my wife was watching the kittens being born in a cardboard box I had cut open for just this occasion. She only had 2 kittens and Rascal was born first. She was out of the box and Rascal dropped right out. On his head, I’m sure. So I pick him up and now they are both in the box. As I sit back down the other kitten is being born and I hear my wife say, “This is a miracle. Watching the kitten being born is …… Oh MY GOD! That is so gross! She Just lick the blood!!”
After a while of begging and pleading, my wife said that if we keep one of the kittens, I can choose which one. So I choose the other one. The one we called “Thumper”. We chose that name, not only because he was completely silver and looked like the rabbit “Thumper” from the movie “Bambi”, but because he kept bumping into the furniture as he was learning to run and walk. His head would “thump” into the coffee table. Somehow, Rascal figured out that I would be choosing who stays and who goes. So he started to cuddle up to me. As soon as I would come home from work, I would sit down in my recliner and he would jump on my lap and go to sleep. So, I changed my mind and chose Rascal to stay and Thumper went to my friends and was renamed “Harley”
Rascal was cool at first. He would play in the box that a 12 pack of soda came in. It would be comical. You would hear a noise in the kitchen and then suddenly a Dr Pepper box would come sliding across the floor doing nearly 90 mile an hour until it the wall or the couch. I think I still have a video of him doing circles in the box. He was also the only cat that I know of that would play fetch. I know I still have that video. I sat down one day while my wife was at work and there was one of his little balls on the recliner. I throw it down the hallway and Rascal takes off after it. He then brings it back and drops it in my lap. I was amazed so I kept doing it and he kept bringing the little ball back.
Then it changed. We moved into a new place and we put him in a box to move. When we arrived at the new house we opened the box and let him out. He hid under the bed for a couple of days before he came out. I would put food and water under there to try to coax him out, but he needed time. Finally he was comfortable at the new house, but he wasn’t the same. He would sit beside me, but not in my lap, and now when I would throw a ball…. H e would look at me like I was crazy and I know if he could talk he was saying “You go get the stupid ball.” After a while I would go get the ball. He also learned to go outside. We would leave the door open and the screen was torn, so he would just slip right on out and back in. He also learned to let us know to let him in when the main door was shut. He would grab the screen with his claw and back up, he would let go of the screen and the screen door would slam shut. It was his way of saying “open the door! I want in!”
Then we brought Hunter the dog home… That was when Rascal started to plan my death. He would never do anything to me, but now he was actually getting in between my legs as I walked trying to trip me. It has been a while and now Hunter and Rascal have an understanding. Hunter will leave Rascal alone and Rascal will still do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. They even sleep in the same bed together. Hunter just doesn’t get too close. Hunter sleeps between my wife and me, and Rascal sleeps above my head, waiting for the perfect moment, to pounce and attack me while I’m at my weakest. There will be more about Rascal, but for now, he is still a jerk. But he is my jerk.
