When I was a small child in Richardson, TX, we had 8-foot wood fences in our back yard. One Halloween our Wire Hair Fox Terrier went berserk and my father put him in the back yard. The next group of trick or treaters who arrived were practically bowled over by the dog who ran back into the house with tiny, skinny, kitten in his mouth. He had *jumped* the fence.

My father took the kitten from the dog, whose name was Tony, and put the him out on the front yard. One of the reasons was that at the time I was allergic to cats. Very allergic. Not 10 minutes later Tony went *through* the screen door, into the back yard, and we watched him hit the fence and scrabble over it using the horizontal rails. (This convinced me that all animal action movies were true for many years).

Once again, Tony arrives at the front door with the kitten. This time I grab the kitten. My mother shrieks, she is certain that I will go into some sort of anaphylactic shock. Surprisingly, I had no reaction. So with my sister and I crying, my parents reluctantly agreed to keep the kitten until the owner could be found.

For a month, we kept that kitten, known as "cat", before my Father agreed to keep the animal permanently. By this time, the kitten was basically round from eating. We named this short haired cat "Minnesota Fats". He had tiger stripes of gray and black and longish pointed ears. He became the biggest cat I had ever seen, and virtually the only one I was never allergic to. He rewarded my family with fresh meat on a regular basis for the next twelve years.

When we moved to a new place, Tony and Minnesota would defend their territory against members of both the canine and feline family. Often together. When Tony had to be put down, we got a new Lab puppy. Maggie grew up learning to play by batting with her paws, not playing with her mouth. Maggie was a great foil for Minnesota. Often the cat would wait by a tree watching the squirrels. Maggie would spy the squirrel and charge the tree. As soon as the squirrel moved around to the other side, Minnesota would be there to snag it!

The cat used the dog to flush the prey, I saw this happen on numerous occasions.

Copyright © Jody Dorsett
June 16, 2001