Spook-a-potamus

I've talked a lot about my five children, The Chef, and our busy activities. Today I'd like to introduce you to a member of our family that some of you may not know.

Meet Spook, our ten year old cat.

As you can see, Spook is a rather large cat. My daddy, Music Man, very accurately observed once that Spook rather resembles a small area rug. A rug with a tail and ears. When Spook crouches, like all cats do, he takes on a definite circular shape. He truly does look exactly like an area rug. Unfortunately I have no picture to prove it because its really difficult to catch him awake.

However, I do have this:

How's that for a size comparison?

I wear a size 8 1/2 or 9 so my foot is not small.

Neither is Spook, as you can see.

Spook came to be a part of our family in an interesting manner.

We didn't go to the humane society to find him.

We didn't search the newspaper for ads for kittens.

We didn't get him from a friend or neighbor.

In fact, we didn't even want a cat.

But as it turns out, Spook must have wanted us.

We were living in Laurel, MS at the time and on our way to a church picnic held at our friend Hank's house out in the country. When we got there, I noticed some of the youth walking around holding two kittens. One of them was light silver/gray with sky-blue eyes. Hank said the two kittens were strays that had wandered up that very day. Just my luck. That little silver/gray kitten was so beautiful I knew I'd fall in love with it if I gave it even a moment's notice so I made sure to avoid it the rest of the night. Peanut was only 4 months old at the time and we also had a chow-chow who would probably not welcome a kitten. Unless it was an appetizer. It was undoubtedly the wrong time for a new pet, much less a kitten. So I didn't hold it once, no matter how many times a youth kid tried to pass it off to me, not even once. Although I was tempted. But not once did I hold it and I made certain that 4 yr old Guitar Boy didn't either!

Once it was time to leave we rounded up all our stuff, the kids, the stroller etc. and started making our way to the car. It was a good ways from the house. Loading the car and strapping kids into carseats was a challenge because it was pitch black dark and I could barely see my hand in front of my face. Since we were out in the boondocks of south MS, there were no street lights and hardly any moonlight either, so you can imagine my fear when I heard a rustling in the bushes nearby. I had visions of rattlesnakes, coons, and skunks dancing through my head and I was just about to take a flying leap into the car when I heard the little mew of a kitten. Sure enough, that little silver/gray kitten thank You, dear Lord it wasn't a snake, jumped out of the bushes.

Chef, Chef, its that little gray kitten.

Don't get any ideas, Grandma Sandy was his reply.

But Chef why did it come all this way from the house?

Because I have incredibly bad luck was his reply.

Maybe so, Chef, but I made sure that neither Guitar Boy nor I paid any attention to this little dude whatsoever, so why would he chase us all this way to the car? Let me see if he will come to me.

I knelt down and my knee barely hit the ground before little silver/gray jumped right into my arms.

I think that was the point at which The Chef knew he was sunk.

We both knew that we had done nothing to encourage this cat to like us. None of us had even been close enough for silver-gray to know our scent. But for some reason, silver-gray hunted us down. We didn't choose him. He most definitely chose us.

I didn't even have to say a word. As I was kneeling, holding silver-gray in my arms, I looked up at The Chef.

Ugh. Ok. Get in the car. We'll stop at Walmart on the way home and get a litter box and some food, was his reply.

And with that, silver-gray, who was immediately named Spook by 4-yr old Guitar Boy, became part of our family.

Spook's favorite thing to do is sleep. At any given time, he has 3 favorite spots in which to nap. Every 3 months or so, he'll switch up those spots.

You can imagine Grandma Sandy's dismay when he once tried to establish territorial rights here:

How he managed to hoist his enormous self into Dogos' crib, I'll never know. But Spook has been known to pull off some pretty amazing feats.

For instance, when he was just a few years old, he went missing for a few days. We searched high and low for that blasted cat. I thought we were going to have to put Guitar Boy into therapy, he was so distraught. Then suddenly, here comes Spook walking down the hall directly from the boys' bedroom. We were so relieved to see him but could not fathom where he had been hiding for two days. And then, The Chef noticed that he was walking rather strangely. After having him checked at the vet, the Dr. diagnosed him with a broken hip. The break was comparable to one that would occur by having been hit by a car.

That's impossible, Dr. Vet. He is an inside cat. When he went missing, we assumed he'd gotten out of the house but once he reappeared, we were assured that he'd been in the house the entire time.

It was then determined that the only explanation for his broken hip was that he must've tried to jump onto the top bunk of the boys bunk beds, and fallen and broken his own hip. I've heard of humans falling and breaking their own hips, but never a cat. Pretty impressive, eh? And costly, I might add.

Spook even has his own blog. Yes, yes, he does. I think The Chef probably knows something

about that but I'm not sure. However, if you're interested in what Spook had to say a long time ago, then check out www.dcsworld-dc.blogspot.com

As I've stated, Spook loves to sleep. Currently, his favorite spot is a kitchen chair which Dogos finds hysterical. Every time she discovers him there, no less than 10 times a day, she breaks into hysterical laughter which in turn cracks me up.

This picture is to prove that he's actually a real cat and not a stuffed impersonation. His eyes look, well, rather spooky, but its just the flash on my camera. His eyes are still the exact same blue color as this text.

Besides breaking his hip, Spook does other strange things. What could be stranger than that? Well, how about refusing to drink water from any other source than a cup in a bath tub.

You thought I was kidding, didn't you?

He used to only drink it if it had ice cubes as well, but after the birth of the 4th child, he figured out that Grandma Sandy would no longer have time to make a trip to the kitchen to ice his drinks, so he gave up. He still insists, however, that it must be freshly poured tap water. Thank goodness he knows nothing about the existence of spring water from an artesian well.

Another strange habit is that he refuses to eat anything but dry cat food. He doesn't even eat that much, either. Pretty impressive that he maintains such a massive size with only a small amount of food a day. However, if his bowl gets even close to being empty, he'll literally trip whomever is in the room in order to get his bowl refilled. Usually he'll just stare at the refilled bowl a few seconds then walk away without taking a bite. Strange, but I liken it to his homeless days in Laurel before he adopted us.

There's no doubt in our minds that Spook is the only cat that could tolerate us. If there's any doubt in your mind, then take a look at this....

and this....

and this......

Seriously, what cat would ever put up with all of that?

Only Spook, bless his heart.

As infants and toddlers, my children have literally used him as a pillow, tried to ride him like a horsey, and played with his food bowl while he's trying to eat and he's never scratched any of them, not even once. Well, ok, there was that one time when The Boss pulled his tail so hard that he almost landed in another room and he scratched her, but I can hardly hold that against him.

Spook, you are a weird, strange, and quirky cat. In fact, sometimes I wonder if you really are a cat. When you chose us, I'm not sure you knew what you were getting yourself into, but you've remained true through the years. I can hardly fault you for your annoying habits because you've put up with more than your share of ours.

Thanks for choosing us, buddy!