Things have been fairly quiet around here lately, so either the cat is calming down or we're getting used to his antics. However, the peace and quiet were shattered the other day by PC running into my room, growling and carrying one of Rob's toy goats in his mouth. I tried to take it from him, but PC growled at me and shook his head so that the Beanie Baby tag in it's ear vibrated violently.

For the last 18 years I've teased Rob about being an old goat, and he'd say that he was a young goat training to be an old goat. A couple of years ago, I found a carving of an Ibex in a tobacco/handicrafts shop and gave it to Rob for Christmas. The kids have been giving him crabs for some time, so he collects both goat and crab figurines and toys. Well I've been giving him the TY Beanie Baby stuffed goats and PC has discovered them.

I've been informed that those goats are trying to take over the house and only PC's valiant actions have kept us safe from goatdom. I bought Rob a neon goat Beanie Baby and PC gets even madder at it than at the brown one. He growls at it, attacks it and defends himself from it. It, of course, attacks back. They roll all over the bed, growling and hissing at each other. The goats are very persistent. They know that they have to get past PC to take over the house. PC is very brave and protects us from the evil goat hordes. The other cats think that he's off his nut. The goats are the only stuffed animals around here that he has to protect us from. The rest of them seem to know their places and don't try to get out of line.

As well as protecting us from the goats, PC has been testing paper bag caves. He was gleefully testing one and we were watching the bag shift around to the sound of PC's snores when Merlin walked in and saw the motion. Now, Merlin has always been a paper bag connoisseur, and takes his career as a paper bag gourmet seriously. PC was encroaching on Merlin's turf. With a silent rush, Merlin dived into the middle of the bag. PC panicked and tried to escape. What fun!! Merlin dived at the moving blob in the bag and PC attacked the evil unseen paw monsters and they attacked back. Five minutes later both cats were panting and resting, Merlin by laying on the opening of the bag. Fortunately air could get in, but PC wasn't getting out. Finally Merlin got bored and let the cat out of the bag.

Yesterday, the two cats played in the bag cave again, and PC had learned a new tactic. He'd move just enough so that Merlin would come running then go totally still so that Merlin wouldn't be sure that PC was in the bag and would stop. Then PC would shift again and Merlin would go into attack mode, but the movement would have stopped so that he wouldn't know where to leap at. This was fun for a while, but Merlin figured out where to get PC at and leaped into the bag in a beautiful 6.5 point gainer with a twist. The battle was on. We were supposed to be leaving the house to clean cat cages, but we had to wait to watch the outcome of the game. The two cats rolled around, attacking each other through the paper bag, until they realized that we were laughing at them. All action stopped and PC poked his head out of the mouth of the bag cave to join Merlin in glaring at us horrid slaves for daring to laugh at the serious business that they were transacting. It looks like being owned by PC has elevated to a new level.

Copyright © Pam Shirk
August 6, 2001