Mr. Fluffy (Pt 1)

Once upon a time, my children wanted a cat. I love cats, so I was happy to oblige them. A friend’s cat had kittens and we selected the cutest little fur ball to take home. I’d had lots of cats when I was growing up. But we lived indoors and they lived outdoors. We made sure they had food, water and shelter and they rewarded us by occasionally leaving gifts at our back door. I blogged about the night I accidentally stepped on one of the gifts, while barefoot—it was gross.

But we don’t live in the country like my parents did. So my kids’ cat lived inside, with us. At first it was strange having an animal roaming around INSIDE my house. That’s when I discovered I’m very allergic to cats. But Mr. Fluffy was a good cat—a little eccentric, but a good cat. I say eccentric because he liked water, but seemed to be ashamed of that fact. He was a Maine Coon cat (with a big “M” on his forehead—formed by the stripes in his fur).

We kept Fluffy’s food and water in our laundry room and, when necessary, we closed the door to keep him in there. When we did that, I could hear the sound of water splashing. Whenever I opened the door to see what was going on, the cat would just be sitting there, looking innocent. Then he would look over at me as if to say, “Oh, I didn’t see you there. I’m just sitting here doing nothing.” Once I caught him hunkered over and looking back, as if he was about to do something illegal and worried about getting caught.

The splashing noise kept happening and I got more curious. I started trying to sneak up on the cat. With his hearing, it wasn’t easy. A few weeks later I’d I honed my ninja skills well enough that I actually caught Fluffy making the noise. He was doing a happy dance with his front paws IN his water dish. When I let him hear me, he immediately stopped—and looked terribly guilty. It was as if playing in the water was the kitty equivalent of smoking a joint. The entire time we had Fluffy, he never once played in his water in front of us. Weird cat!

In Part II, I’ll explain how that free cat turned out to be the most expensive one I’ve ever owned and also an example of my daughter’s ability to manipulate me.

PS – I shouldn’t say the cat was weird. Since I spent time trying to catch him playing in his water, I really don’t have room to talk.