The Best Cat in the World
"Come on, guys. We are going to get some fresh air," called Christian to his three pets as he opened the front door. Edge was coming over in a few minutes to help Christian work on his baby – a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle - which he had been working on restoring for a little over a year.
"Oh boy, oh boy, outside!" barked Roman as he thundered down the stairs and raced out the door as Christian opened it.
"If I must," meowed Seth with a reserved sigh as he yawned and stretched from his position on top of the couch and made his way to the front door slowly.
Christian rolled his eyes at Seth's dramatics and tapped his foot impatiently. "Seth will you just go outside already!"
"Don't you dare rush me, human!" meowed Seth indignantly as Christian gently pushed him out the door with his foot.
"Dean! Where are you little buddy?"
"Coming! I'm coming!" yapped Dean as he padded as quickly as he could to the front entrance trying to hold his favorite orange ball firmly in his mouth but not quite succeeding.
Christian chuckled as soon as he saw the little pup struggling to bring his favorite toy with him.
"Dean, you can't bring that outside. It's an indoor toy," explained Christian as he reached down to pluck the toy away from the wolfie.
"Hey! Give that back!" yipped Dean as he stood up on his hind legs and pawed at Christian's leg in a vain attempt to get back his toy.
Christian ignored the puppy's pleas as he put the toy on a shelf where Dean couldn't get to it but then he snatched a worn tennis ball from the closet and held it in front of Dean allowing the puppy to sniff it. "This is an outside toy," explained Dean's owner as he then tossed the green ball out the front door and into the front lawn.
"Wow! It bounces so high!" yapped Dean as he ran after the tennis ball as fast as his stubby legs would carry him, even stumbling over his own legs once in his haste to get to the new ball.
Christian laughed at the puppy's exuberance and got right to work on his car, not bothering to wait for Edge, as his three pets romped in the front yard. Dean and Roman played 'chase after the ball' while Seth casually stalked around the outskirts of the yard looking bored. After a while though, Roman got bored with the ball and began to try and convince Seth to wrestle with him.
"Absolutely not," meowed Seth turning up his nose at the idea. "You stepped on my tail last time. It was sore for an entire week!"
"And you scratched my ear and bit my tail," barked Roman, rolling his eyes at the cat's select memory. "So, we're even. Come on, Seth! We haven't had a good wrestling match in forever!"
"It's been a couple of months, not forever."
"It's been a long time, was my point."
"The answer is still, NO!"
As Seth and Roman continued to argue over a possible wrestling match between the two of them, little Dean was in his own world with his tennis ball. Dean would never get tired of chasing after the ball. He loved it. He loved watching it bounce away. He loved chewing it. He loved pretending it was prey and pouncing on it. Dean was so wrapped up in the joy of ball chasing that he didn't realize another animal was watching him until the tennis ball rolled away under the big bush that was up against the west facing side of the fence and the puppy immediately ran after it to get it only to find that the ball was under the paw of a strange cat.
"You're new," meowed the cat crooking his head to the side, staring at Dean with intense, yellow eyes.
"AHHHHHHAAAAAAAAA!" yapped Dean as he forgot all about the ball, turned tail and ran towards Seth as quickly as possible. "MAMA! MAMA! C…C…CAT!" yelped Dean as he hid behind Seth, his body trembling uncontrollably in fear.
"Where is he? Where is he?" barked Roman instantly on alert as he narrowed his eyes at the suspicious bush.
"Calm down, Roman. I don't think it's Punk," meowed Seth as he took a few cautious steps towards the shrubbery. "I would have smelled him."
"Make it go away, Mama. Make it go away," whimpered Dean as he pressed himself as close to Seth's body as possible not daring to even look at the bush.
All of a sudden, the tennis ball rolled out from under the bush which sent Roman into a barking frenzy.
"Come out of there you coward! Show yourself!" barked Roman as he brought himself up to his full height and growled threateningly.
"Okay. Okay. I surrender. What's all the commotion for?" meowed a slick voice as a gray, small cat sauntered out from under the bush and sat down a few feet away from the three animals and calmly licked one of its front paws.
Seth rolled his eyes. "It's just Jericho, Roman."
"Oh. My bad." Barked Roman slightly embarrassed at his outburst.
"What's up, Jericho," meowed Seth as he went up and bumped his head against the gray cat, Jericho in greeting.
"Just enjoying an early, spring day and minding my own business. Thought I would drop by to say 'hi' and then ran into this excitable wolfdog who seems to be scared of me for some strange reason," remarked the gray cat as he stared curiously at Dean who hadn't moved from his position on the ground.
"You'll have to excuse the pup, Jericho. Apart from myself, Dean's only other experience with cats was his nasty run-in with Punk and his gang," explained Seth as he went back to the confused pup and gave him some comforting licks.
"Well that certainly explains things," said Jericho good-naturedly as he slowly walked up to Dean so as not to frighten the puppy more. "Hey! I'm Jericho. The best cat that you will ever meet in the world! What's your name?"
"D…Dean," mumbled the wolfie still slightly scared of the strange cat even though Seth and Roman knew him. Dean was also confused. Did every cat think they were the best? What happened when they argued over who was the best? Roman's right, Dean thought, cats are weird.
"Hi Dean, here's your ball. Sorry, I didn't mean to take it from you," meowed Jericho as he nudged the ball right at Dean's feet. The pup immediately snatched the ball up in his mouth, chewing on a ball always made everything better.
"What do you say, Dean," prompted Seth who reminded the little one of his manners.
Hastily, Dean put down the ball and yipped. "Thanks!" Then as quick as he put it down, Dean grabbed it again and ran off to play with his ball some more leaving the two cats and dog to watch him.
"So, where have you been hiding yourself, Jericho?" asked Seth as he kept an eye on Dean.
"You know. Here. There. Everywhere." Stated Jericho as he lazily stretched out his back and yawned. "Living the glamorous life of an alley cat. You should join me sometime, Seth, we would have grand old times together."
"You mean going from house to house and mooching off of elderly ladies and their milk?" asked Seth dubiously. "No thanks, I'll pass. Besides I've got responsibilities here now."
"You mean the pup? I do believe I heard him call you mama, correct?"
"And?!" questioned Seth defensively.
"And…I think it's adorable Mr. Nothing Is Going To Ever Tie Me Down," smirked Jericho with a knowing grin at Seth who pointedly looked away from the older cat.
After a few moments of silence, Roman broke it. "Hey, Jericho! You wanna wrestle!"
I apologize for my long absence but I'm back and plan to update this story regularly, so stay tuned for more episodes.
Plus, please review and let me know if you still like these little stories. Thanks :)
