Brat was infamous in the neighbourhood for attacking and terrorizing dogs. Yep. I said that right. We had a Golden Retriever stick its nose in the door once (oops!). Lil puffs of red mutt hair were left down the whole street. Brat even attacked a pair of Dachshunds while they were being walked. We were outside working on the yard putting in some railroad ties and we looked up to hear some dogs yipping and cat-attack sounds.

The owner had literally collapsed laughing and didn't stop until we'd chased off Brat with a broom(*). we had round up one of the dachshunds cuz the thing had been so terrified that it'd tore lose of its owner. We apologized profusely and locked up Brat in the house, but the owner said she'd not had that good of a laugh in a long time and actually thanked us. Weird.

Skunk was even more of a trip. Smartest, and one of the smallest, cats I'd ever seen. My senior year of HS I was up working on some calculus homework. Skunk wanted some attention and hopped from my bed to my desk. He sat there and watched me write for a while, purring the whole time. He then curled up on my text book. I kindly as I could, picked him up and placed him back on the bed. He climbed back up and flopped down on the book again. We repeated this a few times and then he stopped, purred some more and totally floored me.

I had tacked a cartoon from Bloom County, among other things, above my desk. He turned his head and bit the tack (one of the ones with a plastic handle on it for ease of pulling it out). He then pulled it out and dropped it on my book. I was stunned and asked, in that stunned state, what the heck he was doing. He then turned his head and pulled out the remaining tack....dropping it on my book again.

He pulled all sorts of stuff. I REALLY wanted to breed him with a cat that had a 'thumb'....

Then again, maybe I didn't...

Copyright © William Baird
November 3, 2000