Rascal Cat 1977-1998
Sleep well, old friend.
The bravest kitten in the litter. Sometime in the spring of 1977, I followed Bob, a friend and co-worker, home from work. His cat had given birth to a litter of kittens earlier in the year, and he had offered me a kitten from this litter. He opened his garage door to reveal half a dozen kittens, all solid black, playing in the middle of the garage floor. At the sound of our entrance, the kittens scattered toward the far end of the garage. Some kittens ran all the way to the far wall; others stopped along the way to look back. Bob scooped up the nearest kitten, who had hardly run at all, and handed him to me. "You can have your pick -- if you can tell any difference," he said. At the time I couldn't; so, I went home with the kitten nearest the entrance. I was not until much later that I realized that by selecting the kitten that had stood his ground when the garage door opened we had also selected the most fearless kitten in the litter.
The bravest cat in the house. During Rascal's younger days, he shared the house with a somewhat older, calico cat, Candy. Their personalities were drastically different. When someone came to the front door and rang the doorbell, Candy ran to hide under the bed -- Rascal ran to the door to see who it was!
Smile when you say that, dog-food breath. In his early days, Rascal was an indoor-outdoor cat. He decided that it was his job to keep our yard free of dogs. Some cats do this by physically attacking the dog. This was not Rascal's style. When a dog entered his yard, he would walk out to meet it. He would arch his back, puff out his fur, look the dog straight in the eye, and spit in its face! Most dogs got the message. He seldom had to lay a paw on one.
Nobody does that on my watch. One of the few times that I saw Rascal actually attack a dog occurred sometime in his middle years. I was working in the yard on one side of our house. New neighbors had just moved into the house next door, and their small dog was not yet aware of exactly where the property lines lay. The dog began to bark at me as I worked. I did not feel threatened; so, I continued to work. After some few minutes, I finished what I was doing and took my tools around to the front to put them in the garage. The dog, thinking that he was finally chasing me away, followed. All this time Rascal had been napping on the front porch. He must have heard the dog barking, but it had sounded far enough away that he had not bothered to investigate. Now he looked up to find the dog not only in his yard but also barking at me. Rascal flew into action. He charged to dog and actually bowled the dog over. They dog probably felt lucky to escape with only a few scratches.
Lap cats are us. Rascal was a lap cat's lap cat. If I was sitting down, he wanted in my lap. If I was lying down, he wanted on my chest. At night, I slept on my side so that I would not wake up with fifteen pounds of fur on my chest and whiskers in my face! Rascal was always happy for me to work on the computer because he could lie in my lap the whole time.
There's a DOG in the house! In his fifteenth year Rascal's life changed. Linda and I married and merged our two households. At the time I had only one pet, but Linda brought two into the household. And one was a dog!
Rascal and Moose, the dog, did not become immediate friends, but they got along, sort of. It took Moose a few tries to figure out that this cat was not going to take any lip from a dog. He had to bloody her nose once or twice before she got the message.
Eventually, they worked out living arrangements. Rascal staked claim to the upper story of the house and Moose to the lower. The computer room was on the second floor; so, Rascal was still enjoying plenty of lap time. He was no longer going outside; so, there was not much on the first floor that he missed enough to associate with a dog. Here is a picture of Rascal looking down from his domain. He is either asking me to come up or gazing in amazement at the younger cat, Stoney, who is actually playing with The Dog.
For a long time Moose did not see any reason to invade Rascal's upstairs territory. Then one day she realized that there was cat-food upstairs. One evening I came home from work before Linda, and Moose did not greet me at the front door as she usually did. I called her name but got no response. A bit concerned, I started to walk through the house calling her name. In the kitchen, I thought I heard the rattle of her dog tags when I called, but I still could no locate where the sound was originating. After a bit, I realized that the sound was coming from upstairs. I went upstairs and found Moose. She had gone upstairs to eat the cat food and Rascal had gotten between her and the stairs. Every time Moose would start toward the stairs Rascal would growl and she would back off. Rascal was curled comfortable in the middle of the catwalk that led to the stairs, and Moose was huddled back in the computer room, waiting for me to rescue her. She may have been "trapped" up there all day!
This is Rascal and Stoney (and a ceramic cat). This was taken a couple of years ago, when Rascal came down stairs.
RAINBOW BRIDGE
Author Unknown
Just this side of Heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water, and sunshine and our friends are warm and comfortable. All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special, someone who was left behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; his eager body begins to quiver. Suddenly he breaks from the group, flying over the green grass, faster and faster.
You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into those trusting eyes, so long gone from your life, but never absent from your heart. Then, you cross the Rainbow Bridge together......