The first thing you need to realize about my dear Tony is that he does NOT live with d*gs. Moreover, his only exposure to those hideous things has been ones that he generally could be considered to outweigh. Hence, he heretofore has also not been afraid of them, but merely held them in contempt.

A few weeks ago, I was once again locked in the psych unit and he had the priviledge of staying with a new friend of mine. She has two of those beasts and a cat. I wasn't overly keen about it, but I knew that he would tolerate being home alone even worse. So, off he goes to live with Mena - a 14 pound cat, Kelly a 60 pound d*g, and Sophie - a 100 pound beast.

Until this occasion, I had no doubts about Tony's ability to waltz into whatever house he was sent to and take over. I figured he could hold his own - he does have claws after all, but I thought he had probably met his household match this time. He got there and promptly drew some boundaries with the dogs - no noses up his butt. For that matter, no noses within 20 feet of him. He then went and hid under one of the kids beds for three days.

And then he came out. I'm told it was a bloodless coup. One day he was a fugitive under the bed, the next everyone in the house was bowing to meet his every demand. He was constantly on my friend's shoulder - irritating her cat to no end, he ate the other cat's food - while his was in plenty and canned no less, he lay beside the dog food bowl just to see how wide a berth the dogs would give him. In the living room, he was king of ALL. He lay on the coffee table on his back with all legs sprawled out - obscene it was. This was clearly a cat that was in his element. If the dogs got to close, they automatically trained themselves, "Oh crap!!! There's that d*mned cat!! Sh*t! I can't get out of this space, there is a wall there. Crap crap crap!!" And their bodies would move with panic. Tony on the other hand would not have moved a whisker and would be laying quite relaxed.

I will never doubt his ability to adapt again.

Copyright © Bridget Baker
September 12, 2003