A Scene that Only a Cat Lover would Enjoy

I love painting a scene with words.  If a computer screen is my canvas and the keys are my brushes, then the words I choose are the colors of my palette.

For all you cat lovers, here is a scene from one of my books that I think you’ll enjoy.

Napping in her porch swing, Tucker is suddenly startled awake by loud barking close by.

Standing a few feet away from her with his hackles up, Dog growls.

Tucker places her hand on her chest in an effort to calm her hammering heart.  She swears at Dog.  “Y’ done give me a heart attack y’ stupid fool!”

Following his line of sight, she sees what has triggered Dog’s outburst of alarm.  Walking slowly toward them is her tortoise shell colored cat.  Each porch post that it comes to, it casually wraps its lithe body around it.  In a continuous motion, it pulls the length of its body free from the post, making sure that each knobby protrusion on the cedar post scratches an itch.  With its tail the only thing left wrapped around the post, it pauses to look at Dog’s threatening stance.

Tucker says, “Will y’ shut up, Dog?  It ain’t nobody but Cat.  If you’ll leave ‘er alone, she won’t bother you.  When ‘re y’ gonna figure out that yore better off makin’ peace, instead o’ always trying t’ start somethin’?”

With an air of nonchalance that Dog finds infuriating, Cat pulls her tail free of the post and continues her slow, seductive Tango toward him.

Unable to contain himself, Dog explodes into panicked barking and bounds toward her on stiffened legs.

In an instant Cat stands on her tiptoes and arches her back menacingly. She utters a lone meow.

Dog quickly interprets her message and stops both his approach and his barking.  He casts a furtive look in Tucker’s direction.

Smiling in amusement at the scene, Tucker offers a word of advice, “I ain’t gonna tell y’ what t’ do, but if’n I was you, Dog, I’d be real careful about right now.”

His ears perk up from their flattened position and a whine of uncertainty emanates through his closed mouth.

Cat’s body returns to its more familiar relaxed position and she takes a step closer to Dog. When his whine jumps an octave, she takes another step toward him.

Like a little boy trying to take a hot marshmallow off a roasting stick, Dog’s head jerks back and forth as he leans down toward Cat.  Caution and reason tell him to walk away and return to his simple life under the porch, but his adventurous and careless spirit tell him that maybe this time he can get the upper hand on his feline tormentor.  Caught between the two, unable to make a commitment in either direction, he stands frozen on the worn boards of the porch.

Cat lifts her head as high as she can.  Their noses touch for an instant.

The effect on Dog is the same as if he’d touched an electric fence.  He jumps back and gives a wounded bark.

A smile seems to spread across Cat’s face and her eye’s dance in amusement.  Ignoring Dog, she walks over to Tucker and waltzes a figure eight between her legs.

Reaching down, Tucker lifts Cat onto her lap.  “Is that ol’ dog given you a hard time?  Don’tchu worry ’bout him.  He’s all hot air.”

Cat turns her head toward Dog and gives him withering look of superiority.

Realizing he’s lost another battle with his cunning antagonist, Dog drops his head and slinks off the porch.  In a final effort to have the last word, he hikes his leg and pees on the forsythia bush before disappearing into his dark retreat.