Sneak attacks and cattitude . . .

Our cat Clement has attitude.  A major dose of “cattitude.”  More on that in bit.

I need to write about my son.  How incredible he is.  Incredibly wild could be an apt description, however, I choose to use the words “all boy.”  This is good thing.  If he was only partly boy, I'm not sure what that would look like.  He is dirty – all the time.  He smells like dirt and sweat and sunshine and rain, depending on the weather that particular day.  He has a really difficult time focusing on any one task.  Think of the movie UP.  The dog is talking away quite animatedly when all of a sudden he just barks out, “SQUIRREL!” and runs off.  That is my Ryan.  I tease him and and call him “squirrel boy.”  When I do, he knows he needs to listen to me.

Because he is a boy and is also very physical – thinks arms legs, hands and feet constantly in action – I will wrestle with him.  I know, not really a girly thing to be doing, but I know he needs that outlet sometimes and I can handle whatever he dishes out, whereas his sisters cannot.  So I'll say to him, “hey, you need some love?”  He perks up because he knows we can get carried away and just tackle each other for a bit and there won't be any punishment for his actions.  I do encourage him to be careful , cause sometimes, yes, it really does hurt.

The other night we were wrestling and pillow fighting.  Ryan figured a running start with the pillow might give him an advantage when it came time to follow through on contact.  He went running into the family room and ran from one end of the house to the other.  Clement was observing the activities and was just staying out of the way.  After a couple of passes through the house Clement launched at Ryan from the back as Ryan went by.  It was pretty funny.  Here's this barely two pound cat, launching a sneak attack from behind on a kid who outweighs him by more than 60 pounds.  I was gutting myself laughing.  Ryan came running a second time through and Clem launched at his front, attached himself to Ryan and proceeded to attack Ryan's groin area.  Being the ever concerned mother, I doubled over laughing hysterically.  Here's this kid running across the room with this cat attached to the front of his pants.  I almost wet myself I was laughing so hard.

It got me thinking about my little brother Levi.  He slept upstairs with us as kids and when he'd wake up during the night, like us, he'd have to make the trek downstairs to mom and dad's room.  Soggy diaper, wooden stairs, dark of night.  Pitter, patter, sit down, step, step, slide, bump.  We had a not very nice Siamese cat at the time.  I never witnessed the attacks, but squealing occasionally woke us up.  There Levi would be, sitting on the steps, scooting down on his bum.  The cat lying in wait.  Listening for each step, slide and bump.  There were thirteen steps.  Then he'd have to walk along the wall and across an open area between the dining room and the utility room to get to mom and dad's door.  The attack usually happened at the end of the wall.

Cattitude.  My word for a cat with attitude.  Clement holds a grudge.  If you torment him, he doesn't forget.  He just waits for an opportune time to seek out his revenge.  You can be sitting quite peacefully on the couch and all of sudden there are pains shooting from your foot radiating outward and up.  This sneak attack usually has some yelling and possibly a flying cat.  Other times, it can end up being a head attack.  At night, if the door is left open, any limb that is not covered by a blanket is fair game (I am concerned that we may not have given him an appropriate name – Cujo might have been better suited to his demeanour).  Ryan has done his fair share of tormenting Clement and I knew it was only going to be a matter of time.  As I was watching our crazy cat launch itself at my son, it reminded me of his uncle enduring similar attacks in the late night hours.  I'm waiting for the night it happens to Ryan, I really believe it will.  Our house will be awoken by squeals of fear and perhaps also pain.

I am grateful for antics that lead to great belly laughs.  I am grateful for the times I can physically engage with my son.  Bonding on a whole different level.  And I'm grateful for our crazy cat.  He's so entertaining.