Chaela and the Kittens

It's been a while since I mentioned our cat Chaela and the 2 kittens she gave birth to while we lived in Argyle. It was living in that rural area that transformed Chaela from a house pet to a "fearsome beast"... Despite her size she would attack anything she perceived as a threat (or prey).

When we moved to the suburbs of Denton it was immediately clear that Chaela had become very territorial. I remember one occasion when she was sitting by the screen door and an errant pooch wandered too close to the house. She jumped up onto the door and began to rattle it as hard as she could. And when I let her our she went after the hapless critter with a ferocity I've rarely seen. And that leads me to one of my favorite "cat tales":

One day I was out in front of the house working on the Charger. (I did that a lot.) Chaela was sitting on the lawn just enjoying the sunshine when I noticed some young teenage boys on the opposite side of the street. They were walking our direction and one of them had a "coon dog" on a leash... As soon as that dog spotted Chaela it went haywire - baying and trying to get free. And that's when the owner did something incredibly stupid... He let the dog off the leash and said "Go get it, boy! Kill it!!!"
Now - up until that point Chaela had been ignoring the hound. She didn't bother dogs as long as they kept their distance (and most of them did)... But not this fool hound. He was running across the street wide open - barking like an idiot... Now - I'm not sure why Chaela didn't go meet him half way. I guess she figured he was in such a big hurry she might as well just wait for him.
So she just sat there until the dog was about 10 feet away, then she reared up on her hind legs and unsheathed her claws... The dog instantly realized that something was seriously amiss and applied the brakes as hard as he could - but it was too late. His momentum carried him right within range of the "whirling blades".
The poor hound yelped and tried to run away but Chaela jumped on his back and dug her teeth into his neck. He rolled over to submit but quickly discovered that cats aren't familiar with that particular gesture... Chaela just kept wailing away - absolutely shredding him.
Now - here's the funny part: That same teenage boy who had just told his dog to kill my cat was almost in tears, screaming "Get your cat off my dog!!!"... I was like "Dude - it's a cat! ... They don't do commands!"
After about 15 or 20 seconds Chaela figured the pooch had had enough and let him go. And the owner actually yelled at me for what happened... I was like "Seriously??? You're the moron who let him off the leash!"... And I never saw the dog (or the owner) anywhere near our house again.

During that summer and fall in Denton the kittens grew into the fattest, clumsiest cats I'd ever seen. Chaela tended to move stealthily about the house, but her kittens were "agents of entropy". Constantly knocking things over. And whenever they jumped off the couch or a table it sounded like someone dropped a dictionary - I was actually surprised when they managed to land on their feet :-) ... But that didn't seem to affect their ability to "hunt".

Aside: Why is it that cats feel the need to bring whatever they capture into the house to finish it off? ... Do they really think we appreciate having to clean up the mess? :-)

I didn't mind the birds and mice so much, but the snakes were a bit much - and that full grown rabbit almost made me puke... Yes - I came out of my room one morning to find the remains of a disemboweled rabbit strewn all over the hall outside my door. It was one of the worst stenches I've ever smelled... And of course, mom and Karina were both out of town so I had no option but to clean it up... I've never been very "domestic", and that kind of thing really used to gross me out... I remember standing there for at least 10 minutes trying to decide where to start... It was not cool :-)

I wish I could say the story has a happy ending - but it doesn't...

Sigh... Circumstances changed in early 1972... I tried desperately for weeks to give the cats away, but nobody would take them. I didn't want to leave them somewhere to fend for themselves so I took them to the pound hoping they might get adopted. But the place was so overcrowded that there were cages of animals stacked outside - the woman told me that they would almost certainly be euthanized. I remember standing there fighting back the tears - but I couldn't think of anything else I could do... For months afterwards I was haunted by the thought of those poor kitties sitting in those cages wondering what they had done to deserve being betrayed that way... I still get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach whenever I think about it...

I'm sure I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I'd don't like having pets and it's not because I don't like animals... This is one of the reasons why.