I said I would try to include Shorty in my alphabet series but Shorty was displaced by Squirrels for S. So here he is. Hard to believe he was Cowboy’s brother. Their coloration was quite different, but they were definitely brothers. I adopted them when they were only five weeks old, not quite ready to leave their mother. But I got them drinking milk from a dish by dipping my finger in the milk and letting them lick my finger. Gradually I brought my finger down close to the dish between licks and they figured out that they could tank down all they wanted without my finger.

They were good company for each other as well as for me.  Best cats I ever had living with me.

They did a lot together.

That doesn’t mean they didn’t get into trouble, but even that was something they often did together — their midnight snack adventure for example.

Shorty

Cowboy

Taking the Fall

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 cat.  Well, almost perfectly made.  Sometimes when the sunlight would shine on his tail, you could faintly make out the rings in his alley cat tail.

Even though they weren’t perfect, the brothers loved each other very much.  They wrestled together, snuggled up to sleep together, and sometimes they got into mischief together.

It’s hard to say which of them was smarter, but it seemed that when the two of them did something bad together, it was always Shorty who got caught and ended up taking the fall for their mischievous stunts.  It was like that the time they decided to check out the kitchen garbage can after the people went to bed.

The kitchen trash was kept in a cupboard under the sink.  It was really 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.

Ahh! What a lovely aroma of chicken scraps greeted him as he peered over the rim of the garbage can.  Up on his hind legs, he could clearly see a half-eaten chicken drumstick that the people had thrown away.  There was so much meat on it still, and pieces of skin not eaten.  Ooh! He was drooling as he thought of the wonderful snack he was about to have, when suddenly a Siamese paw reached past him and scooped that drumstick right from under his nose.

“Meeeooow!  Shorty!  Give that back,”  he spat.

“Shhhhh!” hissed Shorty. “You’ll wake the people!”

No sooner had he said that than he heard a pair of people feet land on the floor in the bedroom.  The shuffling of slippers was coming closer.

“Yikes!” Shorty said. “I’m getting out of here.” He slipped out of the cupboard and sat on the floor as prettily as he could, eyes looking towards heaven.

“You don’t fool me, Shorty!” The lady shook her finger at him.  “I know you were in that garbage can again.  Weren’t you?  Don’t you do that again! Shame on you, Shorty….

“I wonder how much mess he made,” she grumbled to herself.

As she opened the cupboard, there was Cowboy, licking his paws and washing his face.  All that was left of the “snack” was a tiny piece of chewed up drumstick bone.