It was a lazy hot summer day, and I really didn't have much in the way of ambition.  I was lying on my couch and casually channel surfing. I am always amazed that even with our having more than a hundred channels to watch, that there still seems to be so very little on TV.   My mind was approaching a Zen state of non awareness as I gazed at cubic zirconium's being featured on the Home Shopping Channel.  .

My wife, Claudia, was busy doing wife things.  Amidst her wife stuff, Claudia let me know that it was time to feed our cats.  We have two indoor cats and two outdoor cats and we feed our animals twice a day.  The indoor cats are easy; the outdoor cats will sometimes take a bit more effort. 

We invited our outdoor cats inside our house, so that we could feed them. We used to feed them outside, but this didn't work out very well.  The lady who lives next door to us has a preponderance of cats (we inherited our four cats from her).  Her cats often felt that they had a right to our cats food.  Her cats were tougher, hungrier, and more aggressive then our poor pussies.   Consequently, when we fed our pets outside, our kitties ended up getting the short shrift.

"Hey guys!"  I yelled "Come on in; time to eat." 

Our kitties looked up.  One was laying on a bench, and the other on a lawn chair.  Both of the animals seemed to have spent the day immersed in a state of semi narcolepsy.   They opened their eyes, one got up stretched and yawned.

"Hey guys, time to eat!

The other cat, finally opened its eyes and looked at me.  It too stretched and yawned, and slowly got down and allowed me to let it walk into my home.

At one time, we could feed our cats almost anything, and they would be grateful.  That was years ago, when they were innocent young kitties.  They are now older and much wiser in the ways of the world.  One cat had a major confrontation with a car, and came out second best.  The other was just old.  The poor animal had major tooth decay and had to have his front teeth extracted.   Both animals have problems eating. 

I was in the process of mixing up their food (yes mixing).  The animals required a blend of two types of low ash cat food mixed with hot water.    We prepared the food in separate plates and then I politely worked at coaxing them into eating.

Please remember that these cats have lived a number of years and have sacrificed six or seven of their nine lives to Mother Nature and the gods of fate.

I had just graciously served the two of them when my wife yelled at me:  "Bill there's a strange dog in our yard." 

I looked out of the window and witnessed a streak of brown heading toward our arbor vitas. 

My neighbor's grand son's wife ran across our yard looking desperate. 

I opened the door and walked outside.  "Our dog got loose." She wailed "He's chasing one of Nancy's cats!  He won't let me catch him"

Their dog was a huge brown animal of indeterminate breed.  My guess is that he was a cross somewhere between a German shepherd, St. Bernard or grizzly bear.   I am not sure which, but he was big.  He had huge jaws that seemed to continually drool and a tail that moved like a propeller.

The dog leaped after the frightened cat and the cat started to climb our Juniper tree.   

The dog climbed after it.

"Oh my gosh" screamed my wife "The dog's in our tree."

I asked the girl "What's his name?"

"Jack" she replied.

"Here Jack," I called. "Come here Jack.  Come here boy..."

My wife and the girl from next door did the same… Jack was not about to leave his nest in the tree.  Jack was sure that there was a cat somewhere, and he intended to get it.  The cat, evidently had enough sense to take off, but Jack didn't seem to realize this and continued to thrash around breaking branches in the process. .

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