Battle Ready

Clancy, the Gray Menace, started early. He was the runt of the litter. But he had been kicked out of the family first for fighting. We heard this from the neighbors familiar with the family of feral cats living in the neighborhood. So tiny, but pugnacious. We had no clue about that when he first came to live with us.
As a playtoy, I set up a swinging attack dummy. I should have noticed how rapidly Clancy took to throwing himself at it and refused to let go. We failed; we thought his natural aptitude for the attack was cute. After all, he was a tiny kitten. It was amazing what not having to fight for every scrap did for that little kitten. As a bodybuilder does, he began to bulk up and exercise.
Then there were the visits to the neighbor’s Siamese, Hunter. This massive brute took our little thug into his training school and taught him some of the finer points of thuggery.

Around the end of November, I left Ottawa for Boston. Little Clancy already made his rep weeks before winning spite fights with larger siblings. He was ready to take on the “States” next.