Naked as a Robin…
So this morning at 6 a.m., the patriarch of our cat clan, Ichi-ban (number one in Japanese), our Norwegian Forest Cat, woke me up by kneading my shoulder. He persisted until I finally climbed out of bed, naked as the day is long because I sleep naked, and followed him downstairs.
I keep my pajamas on the floor next to my bed in case there’s a fire or a knock on the door or God only knows what, but this morning I figured, what the hell…I’ll go downstairs, give him some tuna because that was his ESP message to me, and then get back into bed.
Down the stairs I went, pulled out a small can of tuna, flipped open the pull-tab lid, gave him a little on a plate, put the tuna into the fridge and started to head back to bed when I realized I needed to pee. As I peed in the dark, in the downstairs bathroom, I heard a commotion in the garage, like, a major commotion…like two monsters wrestling around.
Of course, being naked, I decided to check it out because I’m an idiot. I opened the door into the garage, flipped on the light, and up flew a robin into my face, followed by my cat, Rico, leaping over my head from the roof of my SUV, trying to get this robin who was determined to stay out of his reach. I couldn’t catch either one of them and I’m running around the garage like a naked maniac.
Okay…pulled my wits about me like a cloak. Number one - catch Rico. Number two, put something on. Number three, open garage door - and I almost forgot and made that number one! Number four, chase bird outside.
Finally, the bird flew into a closet and vanished behind a rolled up mattress. Rico leaped onto a crate and I grabbed him and carried him back into the laundry room, shutting his cat door and donning my husband’s windbreaker, the only thing at hand. It fell to just below my tush.
I grabbed a flashlight, went back into the garage, opened the garage door, waved to my two neighbors who looked at me like I was even more insane than usual, and headed over to the closet to find the bird. I spotted the little red-breasted guy, chased him out of the closet. He promptly bumped into the soft ceiling and landed on the floor. I went over to pick him up and this bird gave me a look that said - Oh hell no! I am not giving up without a fight. I laughed because it was such a human look from a bird! Anyway, I said to him - the garage door’s open, now’s your chance. He took off at full speed, squawking his head off. Usually birds caught by a cat look like they’ve gone into shock, but this bird was pissed as hell and he was really smart.
So…anywho, I watched him fly away, waved to the neighbors again, shut the garage door and let the cat out - he’s getting his bell back on today. Stinker!
Took off the windbreaker, climbed back into bed. My husband turned to embrace me and said, Wow, you are really cold! I said, Yup, and I told him the story. He listened and then he replied, I bet you looked really cute in my windbreaker. I would like to have seen that…I just love that man!
