Tara - Part III - "The Retriever"

Tara. She was quite the cat alright.

She, like many cats, was able to retrieve. She liked paper balls, you know, the kind you rip up and scrunch into a ball and throw.

She wouldn't just run after the wad of paper, catch it and then play with it.

She was a true retriever. She'd bring it back to us. Hold it in her mouth and drop it right by our hands.

Sometimes the game would last for several minutes. Throw. Retrieve. Throw Retrieve.

And it could be anywhere. If she heard the paper crumpling, she'd come running. Living room. Bathroom. Bedroom. Yes, she was good at the game.

She would once in a while bring other stuff too. But paper was her name to fame in our house.

It was the middle of the night. Time didn't mean too much to her. She would come and go through her "cat hole" in the basement at whatever time she felt she needed to curl up on our bed.......or play.

Through the distance and confusion of my almost deep sleep, I could hear her muffled entrance into the bedroom. She meowed.......I could hear her, but through my grogginess I wasn't quite sure of her intentions.

Oh yes. It was throwing time again..........in the middle of the night yet!

I wanted to be a dutiful servant and so I did what any dutiful servant would do. My hand went down over the side of the bed, grabbed the paper to heave it to the other side of the room.........

Somehow the warmth of the "paper" woke me up just enough to let out one enormous, blood-curdling yell........


A still warm, dead mouse was in my hand.

Oh, the joys of having a retriever.