Mountain Lion

We thought Tabitha was a ninja but she's really part mountain lion. Monday Tristan, (a Yorkie puppy belonging to Jennifer, Jeremy's cousin and our next door neighbor), saw me getting the mail and begged Jennifer to take him out to see me. I had just returned from a day of running errands and was chatting with my Aunt Lorraine when she caught me in the garage. I was about to end the conversation so I invited her in. She was holding him and he's such a good dog so I didn't see any problem with it. We had a couple come by last week who also had a Yorkie and the cats didn't seem to mind as long as they didn't bring the dog near them and the most the mamas did was hiss and growl but nothing more. We had already introduced Pumpkin to Tristan and they seemed to get along fine. Sasha (our black mama kitty) acknowledged Jennifer and the dog and casually found a good spot to lie down and observe him but didn't seem to care one way or the other as is her nature. However Tabitha got jealous of Jennifer petting Sasha and came up to Jennifer to also be petted and then spotted Tristan. I was getting off the phone and warned Jennifer that Tabitha would hiss and was a little unpredictable about dogs when Tabitha lost it and lunged for Tristan when he barked. Jennifer ran out the door with Tristan as Tabitha tried to scale her leg which in turn excited her more. Adrenaline was already pumping and she was in the mood to fight. Her primary target gone she focused all energy on her domestic foe, Sasha. Sasha is the most gentle and sweet cat and has never bitten or scratched or shown any aggression toward Jeremy or I or any other creature even when Tabitha has lashed out at her. Tabitha sprang onto Sasha with murder in her eyes. Sasha is about twice her size and could easily rip her to shreds but is so gentle all she wanted to do was defend herself and get away. Kittens flew in every direction. Without thinking I screamed as I dropped the phone to scoop Sasha in my now free hand and hold her high above Tabitha to break up the fight. Without any hesitation Tabitha turned on me and proceeded to attack my leg with full fury. The previous week when I had taken her into the vet they cut her nails to the wick to prevent her from scratching us when we put on her medicine because it would sting when it touched her skin and they wanted to help protect us from getting scratched should she fight us when we administered it to her. Despite her blunt nails she managed to deeply gouge my leg. As I was in a skirt from a previous interview prior to running my errands I had no protection to speak of. Sasha saw Tabitha's fury and without scratching me, wriggled out of my grasp hitting the wall which became sprinkled in a combination of hers and my blood landing on the living room floor below which is down a short number of stairs. Fur continued to fly as Tabitha continued to rip into her until I scooped Tabitha up and hastily deposited her a few steps leading down to the basement and swiftly slamming the door behind her before she could return to continue her battle. (We later found out from the vet that she was in heat and it isn't uncommon for kitties in heat to do irrational things like try to murder other cats that they didn't like to begin with or attack the hand that feeds them, only minor side effects like that. She has since then been fixed and is learning to get along or get wet as we now arm ourselves with a squirt bottle when we feel brave enough to let her out of her basement den)

I limped up the stairs to survey the damage. I wasn't quite sure what to do or where to start. My leg was dripping with blood and burned from the gashes. I grabbed a rag to start mopping up the blood when Jennifer returned to the door. I wasn't sure if Tabitha had hurt her too and felt awful she had to witness our crazed cat. She assured me that she was ok and only got minor cuts from her but mostly got scratched by Tristan who got excited by all the commotion. Jennifer and I searched the house for the frightened kittens. Tiger Lily was the first to emerge with her tail still straight up in the air and puffed out like a pipe cleaner and shaking all over. Jennifer comforted her while I hunted for the rest of the crew. I found all but one and after calling for about five minutes, Buckwheat emerged from Jeremy's and my bedroom. All the kittens were very quiet for several hours following and very nervous.

Later that night Jeremy and I discovered how nervous they really were. Buckwheat apparently during the skirmish ran up to our room jumped on our bed burrowing in some of the blankets on top of our bed and tinkled all through the blankets, sheets and mattress foam pad. Another frightened kitten got our couch. Consequently Jeremy and I had to do laundry before we could go to bed. We changed the sheets, washed the blankets and as I was still quite shaken by the day's earlier events I requested Pumpkin for a visit before we went to bed. One of the blankets was slightly damp, I protested to Jeremy that it was way too damp to sleep on after we had made the bed and had laid in it for a few minutes only to realize that it was Pumpkin who made it even more damp.

We opted to sleep in the guest room that night and with no cats or kittens.