My Best Friend And Familiar

My Best Friend And Familiar
By
Lady Willow Hawk

I want you to meet my best friend Smokey. He'll be two years old August eleventh and he's everything a cat's suppose to be and more. I'd originally picked the runt of the litter, a little girl I named Velvet, but she passed over ten days after she was born. She was too weak to survive, so I decided not to own a cat. I'd look in on the litter every day to make sure everything was alright.

I started to notice one of the grey, long haired kittens came to me every time it heard my voice. I knew as soon as I picked it up my mind was made up for me. It didn’t matter if it was nursing or not, it would stop and race towards me for affection. I was sure that it picked me and not the other way around. Looking at the paws I could tell it was going to be a big cat and I was sure it was a male, which was a problem.

I'd only owned females because I knew males sprayed to mark their territory. I already had my old girl Cassie who was eight at the time and an inside cat. She'd never been spayed which meant that if I kept the long, haired grey male, I would have to get him neutered. I thought about it, discussed heavily with my husband, and a few days later we agreed to keep him and get him neutered.

As he grew and played with his litter mates we started to notice attitude, personality and little traits that were his only. We eventually found good homes for every kitten except one. My niece who was living with us at the time had grown fond of him, asked if she could keep him. We agreed, but she was to have him neutered too. So Smokey and Billy Bob continued to play and get into trouble as all brothers do at some point. I always thought that cats were a ‘ take me or leave me I don’t care ‘ type of animal and did what it wanted and not what you wanted. Well to my amazement and pleasure Smokey was the exact opposite.

He had learned to jump from the floor into my arms, but that became a habit that he had to relearn. He would jump up to anyone, and to some people that was a problem. Some didn’t like cats, but Smokey didn’t know that. He was only trying to be friendly. I had to teach him to only jump to me and he learned quickly. He started to kiss me on my face and neck every time I picked him up and if in the morning I was asleep in bed, he'd come in and wake me up by kissing me. When I held him he'd actually put his paws around my neck and hug and kiss me. I thought at first it was because of the salt in my system, but he wouldn’t do it to anyone else just me. So I called our vet and explained and asked if he knew why. His answer was simple and shocked me a little. Smokey does this because he really loves me and is showing his affection towards me. It’s uncommon, not unheard of the vet said.

Well the affection didn’t stop there. We live in the country and we do have mice, but the population has been cut down drastically due to Smokey’s excellent hunting skills. I've also heard that some cats bring their owners gifts from time to time, but I'd never had such a cat until Smokey. One morning he decided to wake me up with a present for me. I was awake, but with my eyes closed and I felt him jump up on the bed. As I opened my eyes there sat Smokey with a dead brown mouse in his mouth not six inches away from my face. Well you can imagine what I did. Yes you're right, I jumped and screamed and scared him in the process. I haven’t received anymore gifts and that's fine with me.

Now summer is here with nature in full bloom and that includes bats. I'm deathly afraid of bats. You would think being a witch I'd have no problems with bats, right? Wrong!! Do you know how embarrassing that is? I've a tennis racket for when I'm by myself and I carry it everywhere I go. One day when I knew the weather and time was right, the bats would start swooping and my panic would return. I had a little talk to the boys one late afternoon around five p.m. and asked them to be on bat patrol. Now the boys are big, Billy Bob who belongs to us now is about eighteen pounds and he is solid, but slow. He tries, but he isn’t successful at much except eating and sleeping. Smokey is about fifteen pounds agile and quick. It just so happen that night a bat decided to invade our house. Lucky for me I was upstairs reading with my door closed. My husband said that Smokey heard the flapping of the wings, jumped straight up and swatted it out of mid air. He stunned it enough that my husband was able to get it outside and it flew away. It was if Smokey understood what we talked about and he was ready to serve and protect.

Now that summer is in full swing, both Smokey and his brother stand on bat attack, Billy Bob taking the upstairs and Smokey taking the downstairs right by my side. At night when I retire, Smokey lays alert on top of the head board directly above me and his brother lays by the door.You should have seen me one night. Just as we were getting ready to retire I heard a tiny sqeaking sound and I froze. Out in the kitchen, that I had just left, a bat was circling the kitchen ceiling. I saw Smokey jump from the floor to the chair, from the chair to the table and right into midair, and swatted that bat to the floor. From the table to ceiling it's about six feet and he managed that as if he had wings. Mean while, I'm in the front room bawling my eyes out, with this king size bed sheet envoloped around me, shaking in utter terror. I must have looked hilarious, because my husband was busting his sides laughing. My husband grabed the tennis racket from my white, knucked hands, and scoops the bat up, covers it with a towel and let it go outside. I use to stay up til three or so in the morning, but now I retire when hubby does, which is most times 8:30 - 9:00 pm so that I'm not alone. I get up when he does at 4:30 am and try to get things done that I can't at night.

Smokey and I also have a special language that we use with one another. It sounds like this, maa, maaaaa, maa, and it has it’s own tones and pitch and that is how we communicate. When he wants his rubbings he’ll lay right down in front of me and when he has enough on one side he’ll turn on the other. He tells me when he wants me to go in the bathroom by leading the way and stretching his right paw as if to opened the shower door, so he can go in the tub to cool down or play. He likes to roll down the side of the tub and do somersaults. My Shih Tzu Pudgy puts up with Smokey and tolerates him and Smokey knows this. He will tease the dog and grab on to his tail and have a heck of a time plaguing Pudgy. This is the attitude and personality he had when he was younger and it grew with him.

You would think that Billy Bob weighing the most, he would be the dominate of the two. Not so. Even though Smokey weighs three pounds less, he is the dominate one and he doesn’t let Billy Bob forget it either. Smokey has definitely earned his keep and a place in my heart. In my opinion, he'd make an excellent acting cat for commercials, but only if I were there with him of course.