Revenge of the Cat.

All our animals have always had character & then some. Gyver was the cat I always wanted. He was part Siamese with lovely blue eyes & the softest cream fur with ginger points. He was a rescued stray & neighbours found him as a half starved kitten on their waterfront with a fish hook through his tongue. They didn't like cats so when I went to relieve them of him his lovely cream fur was black with fleas. He became the only cat I've ever bathed & Jossie promptly declared Gyver his.

Now Gyver had all the usual Siamese quirks plus a few of his own, including a very apt sense of humour.

Liddy was about 4 or so & she had one friend who happened to be a little boy who owned a pure bred Siamese so he was very used to cats, & particularly to Siamese. He spent a lot of time at our house playing with Liddy but he had one very bad trait. Gyver, like lots of Siamese, had cross~eyes so his vision was never the best & he spooked easily. Liddy's friend knew this & his favourite game was to jump out suddenly at the unsuspecting cat & send it into hysterics. After a whole morning of this I decided the cat really deserved a break. He had endured the teasing patiently & never a hiss nor a spit nor a claw showed.

I bundled the children out the door, walked them slowly down our road & then into the mangroves so we could walk back home along the waterfront looking for honeyeater nests & turtle bones. Half way home there was a sudden blurr of white. Gyver leapt out of nowhere at his tormentor with a huge cat grin on his face then turned tail & fled home while the little boy had hysterics.

I still miss Gyver. He was always so grateful for the home he had with us & he loved us so much we had him for many more years than we really should have. He had been sick for a long time & had taken himself off to die as cats so often do but he had chosen a day of thunderstorms & knowing how terrified of storms Gyver was the whole house was out looking for him, calling & calling. Eventually Ditz heard him & we brought him in & dried him off but he was never the same cat & now I think he lived on in a lot of pain never letting on just because we wanted him so much.

If I had my way I would have a house full of cats. Pity my Dearest who really is a dog man & lives with a housefull of cats lovers because I corrupted the kids young. Happiness is a purring pussy.