My Cats and the Secret Service; A Kid's Imagination

My grandson and his grand imagination came to visit me the other day. He had been out in the back yard with our two cats, Ki-ker's who is about an11 yr. old male. The other is a 5 yr. old female I got feral as a kitten, and her name is Ki.

The three of them are quite a team, for they sneak in and out of the bushes that enclose our back yard, hiding from each other, and then sneaking up on who ever they can, and bam, they tackle and wrestle until one of them has had enough. That's when they all scatter and hid again.

Here is how the rest of my afternoon went after they came in from playing. My grandson, by the way is 4 yrs old and has problems pronouncing his r's, so if you see something that is spelled like this -- eaw, or ki-kews, that is my way of trying to spell his pronunciation of ear, or say the cat's name. Listening to him tell a story like this is very much like listening to Elmer Fudd telling it.

This is how I spent the last couple of hours I had with my grandson, and his two very best friends....that day

Allow me to introduce to you, my grandson, Matt----who brought his imagination to play with him this afternoon, and the great story that came out of it.

"Gramma, I have something vewy important I need to tell you, and it is about your cats."

"What is it Matt?" I asked him very seriously.

"OK I'm going to tell you about what happened to us this afternoon, but you have to promise that you won't tell anyone else, and that you won't interrupt or ask me any questions until we are done -- OK?"

"Ok," I agreed, "Lets go inside and sit down, and then I won't talk. I am going to fix everyone a good snack too."

" You say this is something the big cat told you?" He looked up at me and nodded. " You tell me all about it ok?" and as we made our way into the dining room to sit, I could tell he was deep in thought. We sat, and his war story just began to flow, as I just listened.

Just so that you understand all of this a little bit easier, my male cat is missing a piece of his right ear- it is a perfectly round piece and it is about an inch or so tall..

"Well, me and Ki-Kews was playing army mans, when all of a sudden he just started telling me a bunch of his most secwet stories. First he told me that Ki-kews wasn't his weal name. He wouldn't tell me what it weally is. He said that he was weal old, but he was just a kid when he first went in the army, and he worked for the secwet sewvice, just likex

"He told me that he was wounded back in "Nam" (I cracked up but said nothing). He told me that is where he got that hole in his eaw. Theat is where they blew it up while they was chasing him. "

Anticipating his next thought, he grinned from ear to ear. "They was shooting at his butt, but they missed and blew up his eaw."

He told me that "all of this is a top secwet," and he could only tell me because I don't ever tell top secwets to anyone," Seeing that I was taking him seriously, he told me some more. "Both of your cats, gramma, are not weally cats, cause they have people inside, and that they are wearing cat costumes that they had to wear from the war, so nobody knew them.

"When those guys with the guns were chasing him in the jungle, he was sooooo glad he was dressed up like a cat, cause that made him much faster than those other guys who only had two feet, and he had four so he went faster.

He went on. "He didn't like the cat costume sometimes cause he couldn't shoot his gun back at the bad guys, cause you know why gramma? I shook my head.

"Cause he did not have any thumbs when he was a cat and couldn't shoot back, so you know what they had to do? I shook my head no again.

"He said that cause he was a top secwet service and it would blow up his covers if he had thumbs. I could not hold that one in I was laughing so hard.

"So- you know, the army guys, they had to give kikkews a buddy who did have thumbs to shoot back, cause do you know you know what Gramma?"

"What." I answered him back.

"You cant almost do anything with no thumbs? He looked at me in dead earnest.

I could see the gears spinning now.

" I think that you should give kikkers and ki too some special treats for being such good spies in the war, ok, and dont tell nobody gramma, cause I promised him, OK. and dont give them cat treats, cause I don't think the people inside them like them, they taste kinda yucky."

Oh no I thought to myself, but I had to ask the obvious question..."

I asked him," Matt, did you try out some of the kitty treats to see how they tasted?"

"Yup, I did and I know that even if the cats like them treats, those people in there don't."

" Can they ever come out? I mean can kikkews take off his costume from the war ever?" he asked me in earnest.

"I don't think so Matt, it might blow up their covers still, even though the war is over. We better leave their costumes alone....."

Where do kids get such vivid imaginations from??