Cowboy and Shorty were partners in crime. Cowboy was a sleek, smoky gray cat with ears that seemed a bit large for his smallish head. His brother, Shorty, was a perfectly made Siamese. Well, almost perfect. Sometimes when the sunlight shone on his tail, faint rings told of a certain amount of alley cat ancestry.
The brothers loved each other very much. They wrestled, snuggled up to sleep, and sometimes, they got into mischief together.
It’s hard to say which of them was smarter, but invariably, when the two of them did something they shouldn’t, it was Shorty who got caught. It was like that the time they decided to check out the kitchen garbage can after I went to bed.
The kitchen garbage can was kept in a cupboard under the sink. It was easy for a smart cat to get into. All Cowboy had to do was to hook his paw under the door and pull. Then quick as a wink he would stick his head in the open space and squeeze through. I’d seen him do this often enough.
Here’s what I think happened:
The lights have just been turned out. The people are in bed.
A lovely aroma of chicken scraps greets Cowboy as he peers over the rim of the garbage can. Up on his hind legs, he spies a half-eaten chicken drumstick. So much meat left on it. Pieces of skin not eaten. He’s drooling in anticipation of the wonderful snack, when a Siamese paw reaches past him and scoops that drumstick right from under his nose.
“Meeeooow! Shorty! Give that back,” he spits.
“Sh-sh-sh!” Shorty hisses. “You’ll wake the people!”
He hears a pair of people feet land on the floor in the bedroom. The shuffling of slippers comes closer.
“Yikes!” Shorty thinks, “I’m getting out of here,” and he slips out of the cupboard and sits on the floor as prettily as he can, eyes looking towards heaven.
“You don’t fool me, Shorty!” Anneli says, shaking her finger at him. “I know you were in that garbage can again. Weren’t you? Bad cat! Don’t you do that again! Bad Shorty!”
“I wonder how much mess he made,” she grumbles.
She opens the cupboard. There sits Cowboy, licking his paws and washing his face. All that’s left of the “snack” is a tiny piece of chewed up drumstick bone.
Haha!!! too cute 🙂
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They were very loving cats. Only a little bit bad,
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Cute!😊
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Thank you.
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❤
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so cute
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Thank you, Beth!
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Pretty good pair! As the saying goes, “cats is cats!”.
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They sure was.
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Oh, those cats!
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We loved them so much, but they were characters!
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🙂
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Those two were a really good couple!
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They sure were.
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Cute kitties. Our three cats know how to open our screen door and they usually spend the morning sleeping in one of our beds.
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A good life!
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Aw…cute story, Anneli!
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I felt bad for scolding Shorty, but they both knew I still loved them.
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Ha. Lot going on here….
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A lot of sneakiness. They knew enough to wait until we were in bed.
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Such a typical catty-story!!! I love it cuz I can visualize it in my mind so easily – especially that ‘gazing towards heaven’ pose!
When we were newlyweds, we had a pair of brother kitties, too, and what one ‘didn’t do’ the other ‘did do’ and eventually they taught each other to ‘do it all’!
😀
have a great weekend.
peace
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I see that you know just what it was like, Laura. Thanks for reading. Enjoy your weekend too.
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Bad kitty! Better put a latch on the door. 😽
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These were the cabinet doors that were lightly spring-loaded. No place for a latch. It was impossible to keep the cats out, but it made us pay more attention to emptying the garbage basket!
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I love this story. I remember when this happened so many years ago. My two kitties are so much like Cowboy and Shorty. Partners in crime. ❤ 🙂
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Your cats are really sweet too.
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Sweet cats, sweet tale.
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Thanks, Belinda. They were really special cats and I still miss them, though they’ve been gone for many, many years.
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Lovely cats!!
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Yeah, they were. Thanks, Gina.
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What pretty kitties. Cute story, too. Nice to have those memories.
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Yes, they were sweet. Thanks for reading, Lori.
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Great personification of these rascals. Thanks for sharing, you are a wonderful pet person
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Thank you. Great cats, these guys.
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This fun story reminds me of my cat Hamlet. (He passed on years ago.) When my husband and I weren’t home, Hamlet would stick his paw under the refrigerator, dig his claw into the rubber tubing, and pull open the door. My husband I would come home to chewed fried chicken on the floor. Ultimately, we had to keep the refrigerator closed with duct tape. 🙂
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Wow! That would be quite the feat! But I know how smart cats can be. When the reward is food, they can be ingenious at finding a way to get it.
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`Yes! And this cat hated being in our apartment all day while we went to work. He was bored.
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Aww…poor Shorty. My son’s cat opens doors with her paws if they aren’t closed tight. You have a couple of characters on your hands! Cute story.
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They sure were characters. Thanks for reading, Patsy.
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You’re welcome, Anneli! 🙂
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Beautiful animals. I remember the times when we had three cats simultaneously, and of course, they visited a garbage can regularly.
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They do like to get into things!!
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