The question gets asked: What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever found (and kept)? Ahh, there is a story behind that:
I was standing with my friends in Ottawa, chilling, talking, and minding my own business. When this little grey fuzzball marches up, climbs onto my shoulders, and claims me as his human. My friends were almost near hysteria in laughter. The kitten had been bumming around the neighborhood for weeks, and now it had decided I was it’s human. So, of course, I kept him for about seventeen years.
His influence on me continues to linger. Subsequent cats have all admitted that the basic training was adequate. I understood the importance of felines as a civilizing influence. Who knows what things would look like if it was all left to dogs?
Our cats, Marcus and Sabrina, particularly like that even their dog brother, Max, understands the hierarchy—”cats rule, and dogs drool.” But remember, never on a cat’s beddie!
Yes, of all the things I managed to find and keep over the years, one grey kitten has stood out. He was bossy, bratty, demanding, and sometimes vicious but also faithful and affectionate. You had better watch out though because he was moody and his behavior could seesaw.
There was the time he attacked a couple of thugs who were attacking me. He and I ended up standing in our doorway – I was holding a long dagger, and he was yowling and threatening violence. Clancy was berzerkganger. He wanted blood. I think they were more afraid of him than me.
Then there was the burglar, who he trapped in the bathroom of the loft building where I had my woodcarving studio. I got home from a night away and found the building in an uproar, the police waiting and Clancy with his buddy cat cornering a thief. The thief stood atop the toilet, begging someone to take the cats away. There was a trail of blood from my door to the bathroom.
On the road, he was a good companion, whether savagely attacking the hand of the customs agent who dared stick a hand into his carrying case or entertaining bar patrons one evening. By turns, he was one nasty dude or charming.
He had an impeccable ability to sense winners and losers among the women I dated. Eventually, I realized his sense of how good a fit they were for me was better than mine.
I was trained well!
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Aww.. one gets only one Clancy per one’s lifetime. Somehow, though — as you say — it’s blessing enough to last forever. 😊
He was one good-looking little guy!
Wow, what a great cat! On TikTok, that process that unites cats and humans is called the Cat Distribution System, and there are faithful believers that the cats in the world are out there making it happen. I wish I had seen Clancy in action, but your descriptions are wonderful. Of course you will always remember him clearly. <3
We tell the kittens about him…how much they get I don’t know, but they love the attention.
ha ha ha!! Awesome.
My Siamese cat, Naggy, jumped off the top of the refrigerator and planted all four claws in the back of my abusive first husband (known as the Juvenile Husband) who was about to throw a phone book at me. Cats are truly awesome creatures and I’m honored to have known many of them. Some of them — like your Clancy — chose me.
Not surprised that Naggy did that at all. Ounce for ounce they can be one of the most most dangerous animals around in combat.
I agree. Naggy went with me everywhere and she slept with me. She was the Polar Bear Yeti T. of cats. I got her at the pound when she was a kitten.
Wish I’d had a cat when it came to picking the men in my life. Never had cats until the first husband got a Himalayan for our daughter. She was allergic to most cats but not this one. How much of this story are you embellishing? 🙂
Very little. He was a real pip of a bruiser. And he was the one that approved of my darling wife. He just adored her, and if we had broken up he might have gone with her.
But, yes, he was a violent sort, you did not want to run afoul of him.