I loved both of these. Well, heck. I love all of them.
But Alarm Clock Cat? That one put me in mind of my April.
moar funny picturesI had two cats in my life, as an adult. They lasted an extra long time, so I never needed any more.
I got April, a beautiful tortoiseshell, in Tampa in 1983. She was born April 1st. We met when she was five weeks old, and she came home with me a week later. She lived until August 2002 - 19 1/2 years.
In 1984, in late July, her four kittens were born. One was BabyCat. I kept him. The other three were given away before they were even born.
April was a very sweet and loving cat. They both were. But my BabyCat didn't have much of a sense of humor, and April clearly did.
Good thing, too.
In her heedless youth, she had a brief but memorable career as an Alarm Clock Cat.
She was a little girl still, around a year old. I was 25, in college, and Babycat was not yet born.
April had certain moves she enjoyed making. One I called BOING. If you've spent any time around cats, you've probably seen a cat do this one. They take a running start, make a flying leap high in the air, and POW!, land back down with all four paws close together. Like the Alarm Clock Cat, rather than the Christmas cat up there.
My Little April Girl would also do it as she walked along, with no running head start. She'd be walking or trotting around and suddenly elevate herself several feet in the air, straight up, then land back down on all four paws again, BOING! Just for the sheer joy of it.
Sometimes she'd check to see if I noticed, then pretend she wasn't looking. Or she'd kind of giggle at me, then hold her head high and trot back along again.
She had a wonderful little trick gait sometimes. Her paws would sort of flip lightly back as she trotted. It looked just like Fred Flintstone when he'd levitate with happiness and twinkle his toes in the air. I thought of it as her *twinkletoes* bit.
That was extremely sweet to watch.
However: When she wasn't quite old enough to know better, she took to doing the BOING thing on my stomach, as I lay on my back reading or studying or resting.
This was great fun for her, but certainly unwise. My stern advice to that effect went unheeded.
One fine day, April also decided that 4:30 am was an excellent time for breakfast.
Unfortunately for her, I was still in that PTSD hyper-vigilance state. One consequence is, a person reacts with lightning speed in self-defense, and asks questions later.
So. Sound asleep I was, that fateful early morning. April BOING'd on my belly, and my split-second reaction was to scoop her up and fling her away from me.
She hit the wall around eye level, about 4 feet away, and slowly slid down the wall to the floor.
By then I realized what happened, and leaped out of bed to her side. OMG!!! My poor girl! What have I DONE?!?!
She was fine, thank God. A little dazed. She instantly forgave me.
But she never did that again.
And for the rest of her life, if she was doing something naughty, I'd tell her: --April! Remember the day I taught you how to fly?
2 comments:
Heh. I don't sleep too well when anyone or anything is crowded up against me. My cats have learned that if I'm tossing and turning, it is best to relocate, lest they become a missile off the end of the bed.
Yeah, but that's different from picking them up and slamming them away from you!
I got to love having the cats snuggled up with me. Every night April wanted to do that knead-and-suck-the-hair thing, especially as she got older. So every night, I'd take down the bun, and let her rip. She'd go into Deactivated Cat trance, purring and purring and purring...sometimes she'd fall asleep that way, and not wanting to disturb her, I'd leave the way thick 44" long hair down so we'd all be tangled up in it by morning.
I don't move once I'm asleep, especially now. Walter flops all over the place. The cats knew they were Not Quite Safe In Bed when he was home.
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