When I first moved down here to South Florida more than 17 years ago, I moved into a trailer located right on the Intracoastal Waterway. The trailer park had been there since the early 40's at least, and it was a quiet, enjoyable little place to live.

A litter of four kittens had been born under the trailer a few months before I moved in, and I guess they decided to let me share their space with them, as I they seemed to accept me right away, especially the one large, all-white, six-toed cat we called 'Doofus'. Now, we didn't mean anything bad by that name, we just called him that because he was one of those big, goofy cats that I think the Looney Tunes characters were modeled after. It didn't really matter what he was called, as we think he was deaf anyway.

He would always follow me around, especially when I would walk down to the water. I remember one morning in particular, we walked down to the beach. I sat there on the breakwall drinking my morning coffee, and watched as the world went by (boy, I miss that place), and the cats all sat along the wall with me, basking in the morning sun.

Suddenly, the water was alive and moving with the sounds of bigger fish chasing smaller fish. The cats jumped and watched as the splashing water got closer and closer to the beach. The commotion then got so close that the minnows were jumping right out of the water and landing on the beach. The cats thought this was great as it was an instant FRESH snack! They would rush down, grab some fish, then sit back and wait for more. I wish I'd had a video camera!

Then one late summer afternoon, we were in the midst of a good tropical storm. Being the tropical weather freak that I am, I decided to go for a walk down to the dock and check it out. The wind was kicking the waves up between the boards of the dock, the waves were crashing over the breakwall, and the wind was gusting out of the north so bad that I had to hold the hand rail as I walked out the length of the dock. And sure enough, there was Doofus kitty, right behind me, and right on the edged of the dock, jumping the distances between the different lengths of the ends of the weathered dock boards.

A GREAT gust of wind came up, and I heard this muffled 'SPLOOSH' sound. I turned and looked, and sure enough, the big white cat was GONE!!!!!

Holy crap! I knelt and looked into the angry water. What do I do? I can't see him! Do I jump in and try to find him? Where is he? Arrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!!!

I moved a few feet this way, then back that way, and I looked back towards the beach to see if anyone was around in case I went into the water too, and lo' and behold, there was the Doofus, hauling ass back towards the house. All I could see was a big white STREAK. I mean, this cat was FLYING! He must have used those huge six-toed paws to climb back up a pylon and get outta there!

I got back to the house, and there he sat, on the porch, soaking wet, and looking none too happy (heh heh heh).

I think he spent four days cleaning the sea water off of his fur.

And it was easily a couple of weeks before he followed me out on the dock again.

Poor Doofus.

I still snicker when I think about that.

Copyright © John Rahn
January 20, 2003

Read John's other stories: My Hurricane Kitty & It was a three cat night...