How To Freak Out A Cat

Ever See Two Cats Imitate A Spin Cycle?

I was holding Pookie Cat last night, tickling her little pink toes and rubbing her belly. She's not too fond of this activity, but since *I'm* the one that puts kibble in the bowl, gives her kitty treats twice a day and scoops out the pooper box, she can suffer the occasional indignity in return.

Usually she starts to yowl after a minute or so, but she was resigned to her fate last night, and allowed me to hold her for quite a while. Until the pile of containers fell over, that is...

I'd stacked up three Rubbermaid bins, each about half full of various objects. One is my recycling bin, and was mostly full of empty cans and bottles. They fell over for some reason, creating quite the clangor. Pookie Cat just about leaped out of her skin.

Poor Pookie's never been a docile cat. She's the prissy, nervous high-strung type, and it was like watching a cartoon of a cat losing it, with its eyes bulging out of its skull and all the fur afluff.

Of course, I was holding her when this occured, so my chest got used as the acceleration lane as she shifted into high gear. As she headed from my gut up to my neck, looking to scrabble over my face on the way over me to the bed, I decided to save some plastic surgery bills and launch her off my epidermis.

Pookie made a graceful arc over my shoulder as I boosted her away from my face, and landed square on top of Betsy Cat, who'd bounced awake at the initial crash. They share no great love for each other, and each assumed the other was on the attack. Suddenly there's a complete "Auntie Em! Auntie Em! It's a twister, it's a twister!!" moment occuring on my bed as two cats commenced to form a whirling blur of snarling, spitting fur, then as quick as it began, each shot away in a separate direction.

Alas, the door was shut, so neither cat could retreat out of the room, leaving Betsy to burrow under the bed while Pookie perched on the edge of the bed, nervously trembling.

Poor Pookie Cat... I really need to look into getting some kitty Valiums. One of these days I'm gonna drop a dish, and she's gonna stroke out.

Here's Pookie Cat in calmer times.