Cat Wrangler Part II

After a while, Snowball occasionally became a bit calmer and befriended my own cat Sheba. Sheba is small, has only hissed once in all the years I've had her and has a cream colored coat. They would often sit together on the perch I had attached to my windowsill to watch squirrels and catch some rays. Because of Snowball's girth, my cat would get pushed off and end up on the floor. Snowball would look at the situation genuinely confused as to how it had happened; she had the opposite of body issues and imagined herself to be a tiny kitten though she weighed in at almost twenty-five pounds. Hoping to preserve the feline friendship,  I decided to make a cat walk of sorts.It consisted of two metal brackets in the middle supporting a board. I put a small blanket on either side and Sheba took to it right away, choosing to sprawl on the far end with  the best view of the window.  Snowball took a bit more time, but she eventually warmed up to the idea. One night sitting at my computer writing a paper, I heard  Sheba on the shelf as the bell on her collar jangled. A few minutes later, Snowball walked in tepidly and glanced  at the shelf. She contemplated it for a while and then decided to jump up. The world went into slow motion and I realized too late, the mechanics of cause and effect.

Sheba looked calmly at  Snowball  as the larger cat sprung towards the shelf As she landed, Sheba went flying through the air all claws and confusion. Under Snowball's substantial weight, the board would-be perch became a combination springboard and see-saw. Snowball  thoroughly befuddled, calmly and slowly slid down the shelf and plopped on the floor. Sheba ran down the hall way at full speed and hid in the linen closet. After that Sheba looked at any potential home improvements I made with real suspicion.

Cat Wrangler Part I

Though most cats weigh less than twenty pounds, they can turn into a deadly cyclone of fur, fangs, and claws when scared or upset. While taking care of a cat for a friend for a few months, I ran into a few complications.

Snowball was a huge black cat with a white front and paws. She was really a lovely cat to look at and was a friendly and sweet animal if or when she got used to you. Until then, her black fur looked not unlike a puma pouncing with full force. Her lemon-yellow eyes took on a special tinge of violence when she was scared. She went from cute to crazy in an instant.I decided to keep her in one room at a time so she wouldn't become overwhelmed and occasionally she came out and socialized or rampaged; we could never predict which.

Living in the convergence zone, I get the worst of the weather the Puget sound area has to offer and if the power ever goes out in Western Washington, it will go out here first. Such a storm happened one cold winter while I had a nasty cold. Bundled up in layers and a hoodie under my down comforter, my own cat sitting at my feet with a blanket over her, I suddenly heard a thump. Snowball was lonely and had decided to visit. Used to sleeping under the covers with her owner, Snowball jumped up on my bed and tucked her head under the blankets. She soon bored of this though and upon seeing my own cat, decided that she needed to take higher ground. So she sat on my chest. Among Snowball's many issues was gas and extreme jumpiness. As a cloud of noxious gas came towards my nose, she kneaded her claws into the collar of my sweatshirt, about two inches away from my jugular. I couldn't help it and I coughed. Fur up, back hunched and ears perked,and  she looked at me for a second her yellow eyes contemplating  whether or not to put an end to me then and there. Luckily, I earned a temporary reprieve but she kept kneading my hoodie endlessly with her claws. Luckily for me, my nose was still plugged from the cold. Still, she was pungent.

I do not know what she could have eaten, but that cat continued to have awful wind for quite some time and any sudden noise or movement meant  a sudden shift from kneading my skin with her paws and making my face and throat into julienne strips. I heard a family member come in the front door downstairs from my room and considered yelling. Instead, I tried a sort of stage whisper in a calm voice, "Help. I'm stuck!"

About an hour later, Snowball grew bored and jumped  off of the bed. It was not the first or last time Snowball and I would have an issue.