Cat-Astrophy

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Do you have a pet? Have you ever had a pet? Cat? Dog? Bird? Fish? Snake (yuk!)? Turtle? I could go on and on….

I’ve written a previous post about my adventure with our family cats (please see my post of April 21, 2013 – Boots and Tippy), and how much we enjoyed them. And included in that post was the information about my Aunt Jessie and Granny’s dogs. That was really the best of both worlds – we had cats, and 10 minutes away from our house was Granny and Aunt Jessie’s house with dogs. Loved them all.

Bill and Judy and Boots 1956

Boots and Trixie

But then I met and married Fred. His family was a military family, and his parents said that, because they moved so often, it wasn’t practical to have pets. So Fred didn’t have the pleasure of growing up with animals around the house, as I did. And, consequently, he didn’t feel the need for pets in our house. And that feeling was emphasized following his entrance into the military, himself. Same feeling as his parents – we moved so often that it wasn’t practical to have pets. So we never did.

But that’s not to say that I didn’t miss having a cat or dog following me around the house. But I also have to admit, even now, that, because we travel as often as we do, it is quite convenient not to have to arrange care for an animal.

And I find it interesting – and amusing – to find that both our daughters have pets: Karen and her family have cats; Janet and her family have dogs.

But that brings a memory to me of a time that we cat-sat for someone. We were in our first tour of duty in Germany – Wiesbaden. It was 1968, and Karen was just one year old. A family from our church went on vacation, and asked us to keep their new kitten for the few days they would be gone.

Credit Google Search and the Kitten Lady

It was cute little thing, and Karen was quite taken with it. I remember she had a set of winter mittens – hooked together by a long yarn cord. She would run through the apartment – holding one of the mittens, with the other trailing – and the kitten would chase it. She had great fun out of that.

On to the crux of this story: it was my habit to put her in the bathtub to play in the water while I cleaned the rest of the bathroom. We would have conversations, as well. I had done so one particular day when we had that kitten with us. I had cleaned the toilet, and had the lid propped up to let the seat dry. The door to the bathroom was open – and that kitten made a mad dash for the toilet – and jumped up to sit on the closed lid – only to realize, mid-leap, that the lid was up and the toilet was open! With front paws splayed, that kitten landed smack in the water in the toilet bowl! And then leaped out with a loud yowl!

Credit Google Search and Warren Photographic

That poor, wet, bedraggled kitten was quite pitiful to see! But it was one of the funniest things I think I’ve ever seen! I never knew animals could have an expression of pure terror on their face – but that one did that time!

Karen and I had quite a laugh over it. And everyone I have ever related this story to, has also gotten a good laugh out of it.

It was quite the cat-astrophy in the making!!

Tags: Cat Antics, Cat tales, Cats, Family pets, Humor