Top Cat

It was a tragedy that brought Top Cat to our home.

I was gone all day with some friends...

(No one liked taking care of my cats.

And people in my house were allergic to them,

so they stayed in the garage or ran the neighborhood,

back when that was OK.)

When I returned home, my parents met me at the door with two kittens. They were oddly nervous, so I could tell they had something to tell me.

After holding both kittens a few minutes, I asked about Tabby - where was he? Tabby was hilarious. He loved playing by the creek in our yard, and I had to rescue him from snapping turtles often. He was too curious for his own good, though, because after I left with my friends, my parents discovered he had tangled with the neighbor's full-size German Shepherd. The dog won, they rushed Tabby to the Vet's but he had severed a major artery and died on the table. The Vet told them about a litter of kittens, only two males remained, they bought them on the way home from the vets.

It was early spring, and by summer both cats were grown, and had born kittens. 7 between the two of them. I never really got attached to the two "male" cats, they didn't capture that much of my attention, but their surprise kittens were hilarious and the whole family seemed to enjoy watching them grow.

So ... a story from memory of the cats I've had for pets.

I absolutely loved kittens as a little girl. Of course they grew into obnoxiously annoying, demanding cats. My parents weren't the most tolerant of the critters, and my sisters had zero patience. When we discovered that one of my sisters had allergies, my cats became outdoor pets.

I don't remember their names but a few funny stories.

Top Cat's story is above.

When we first married I got a kitten, unawares of the allergies my hubby had. Every evening we laughed ourselves sick over that kitten. We discovered that if you put a kitten down into a paper sack it jumps straight up in the air, thinking it is jumping out of a hole, then panics when it realizes it has to "go down." The expression on that kittens face was priceless. This is the kitten that moved to our first Army base with us only to discover we couldn't have pets.

When our sons were small we had several "farm" cats and a city cat. We moved from a house in town to a small working farm, pony, horse, mules, chickens, rabbits, cattle, plenty of mice in the barn, etc. So the cats were working animals. They would get thrown in the grain bin by the boys, and you would hear the war under the tin lid. The cat always came out the winner.

We had several episodes with kittens getting hurt, they would crawl into the warm engine of the car or truck and not escape quick enough when the vehicle was started. They would run along side the tractor and end up under a wheel or blade. One time I was backing out of the driveway and we heard the familiar squeal of a kitten. My son, then 6 screamed at me to stop the car, so I did. He got out, checked on the kitten, announced it's demise, then turned to me and vented, "You hate my kittens don't you." I was crushed, he was destroyed. We had several long talks after that, but to this day I think he blames me (not).

Today, no pets. Only great memories. But when mice try to get into our home, we sure do dream of a great "mouser."

He was one of 7 kittens, but he claimed "King of the Hill"

When my parents made me choose one of the litter, he was the easy choice.

The two "male" cats they bought me, to replace my kitten who met his demise with a neighbor's German Shepherd, were actually female. They had kittens in our garage. I chose one - TOP CAT.

When all other kittens were finding their place for dinner,

Top Cat weaseled his way to the top and although he wasn't any bigger than the other kittens, he always made himself known.

He was even more curious than Tabby the cat he replaced. He was into everything, and grew to be a very large healthy cat. He was a mouser and was proud to bring home the trophies from his daily hunts.

He had the best life because he lived in a neighborhood where pets ran free, and he not only had creek full of critters on the property, but woods to explore, and with so many houses being built in the area, there were snakes, mice, crawdads, chipmunks, and large bugs to discover. He loved entertaining our family, doing crazy acrobatics from drapes, to furniture to appliances and back (when he'd get the occasional invitation into the house.

All about cats.

Not necessarily written by the cats themselves.

Now my husband is allergic to cats, so I only get to adore them through pictures.

Feel free to share them here.