Story by Jazzy

Spike the Wonder Cat was a sweet, wonderful, curious and playful cat. But oh, what a lot of work! He would begin each morning by waking us up for breakfast. Thoughtful of him, but his technique was unique. He could have purred us awake or licked our noses with his rough little tongue, in fact, he should have done that. But instead he would climb up onto Mum & Dad’s headboard, crouch and summon all of his energy and power and then within a blink of an eye he had already done a humongous body slam landing *SPLAT* in the middle of our chests almost giving us a heart attack! This was cruel but effective.

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As a kitten his mornings were spent climbing curtains and then crying repeatedly when he got stuck at the top until he was rescued and lifted safely down to ground level again. This would happen three or four times before he got bored, or Mum’s threats were listened to.

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At lunch time he went down the road to a large old house where a group of students he’d made friends with lived. They always had takeaways lying around on the front porch. Spike could often be seen pigging-out when their backs were turned or they went inside. Once he came home with a big patch of dirt stuck in the fur on the top of his head. We guess it was thrown at him as a reminder to ask before stuffing his face.

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Actually most of his day was spent in search of food. He could sit for hours on the back fence staring onto the neighbour's kitchen-often freaking out and causing them to roll down their blind. The only thing that could drive him away from this task was when he heard our fridge door open. You had to plan what you wanted to get out beforehand because he would ZOOM into the kitchen as fast as a jackrabbit on the highway and steal a mushroom or anything else within reach. You had to be quick to block him with your feet, but this didn’t always work as he was a very determined cat.

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He was (of cause) a very calm and stubborn cat that wasn’t easily surprised. Mum often had to pick him up and move him from the driveway so that her friends could leave in their cars. Strong hoots from the cars were absolutely and completely ignored. He could have just listened to powerful and threatening hoots of the cars, but, instead decided to be just plain thick and be a nuisance instead. We’d also often heard cars hooting abuse on the road when he wouldn’t budge. Being a dark grey road-coloured cat, he was lucky to be seen at all!

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Maybe he wasn’t stubborn, just plain thick, as he never did work out glass. If he saw a bird outside (even a bird cage) he would run like lightning through the lounge and living room and smash head first into the glass doors possibly crushing more brain cells.

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It was a good thing that we loved him, because I don’t think anyone else would’ve put up with him.