Yellow Cat Robert P. Herbst © Copyright 2001 by Robert P. Herbst

As I have mentioned before, here at the Mount Perry Office Supply, Inc. we have a cat. It's a fairly standard version of
Allycatus Nonspecificus. We call it "Cat" for obvious reasons. It's black and white in color and it has no tail, a characteristic of
the Manx breed. The cat has been to the veterinarian and is now a Nedercat, It's neder a boy nor girl cat anymore. I suppose
its due to this last item, the cat has grown to a whopping 16 pounds.

Anyhow, one of the first things my lovely Ukrainian bride did on arriving here at our home in the States, was to teach our cat it
would now use the sand lot at the corner of our building as a bathroom instead of a litter box. One must note at this time, for the
first four years of its life, Cat never ventured outside of the building for any reason. It would walk up to the door and stop, never
voluntarily setting foot over the threshold at any time. Even when forced to go outside, the cat would bound back into the
building as fast as it could after release.

This was definitely an inside cat, of this there could be little mistake. Right up to the time when Lyudmila took the cat outside
and taught it how to use an outside bathroom. At this point one must take into consideration, there are other cats living in Mount
Perry.

Cats are quite territorial by nature. Each cat stakes out it's territory and defends it vigorously against all other cats. We didn't
take this into account when we put our cat outside and educated it to make its bathroom at the corner of the building.

In the Mount Perry Office Supply, Inc. area, there also lives Yellow Cat. Yellow Cat is also a prime example of Allycatus
Nonspecificus but with a tail and has for years considered this area its own. Suddenly we have introduced, into Yellow Cat's
neighborhood, a big fat black and white cat which poops regularly in a part of its territory. Yellow Cat is, to say the very least,
somewhat disturbed about this.

Our cat sleeps most of the day away, as most cats do, and only becomes active about dusk or at night. Unfortunately, this is
about the same time Yellow Cat patrols its territory. Our cat approaches the door to the outside and carefully scans the area for
any sign of Yellow Cat before it ventures outside to visit the sand lot. It never ventures much further than the sand lot and at all
times scans the entire area for any sign of other cats.

Our cat is not a fighter. It's so fat it can hardly get out of its own way. Another characteristic of the Manx breed is they hop like
rabbits using both back feet for propulsion at the same time. This causes Cat's belly to bounce up and down, dragging on the
ground each time it lands while running. It's really quite funny to watch.

Unfortunately for our cat, Yellow Cat is also watching from its hiding place as our cat preforms its nightly ritual. Yellow cat
would not come out if we are outside with our cat. It only came out after we have gone inside and for one reason or another left
our cat behind. This rarely happens as our cat usually stays by our side whenever it's outside.

During these summer months when the cool evening breeze blows down from our beloved mountain over the town of Mount
Perry, we leave the doors to our shop open to get as much benefit from this cool breeze as possible. Naturally, our cat does
take short trips unescorted to the sand lot on rare occasions. When this happens, Yellow Cat is waiting.

There was usually a whole lot of hissing and screeching then our cat would bound for the safety of the open door with its belly
dragging on the ground with each bound. Yellow Cat was seldom far behind. About a week ago, Yellow Cat actually entered
the shop and chased our cat around inside the building. This chase continued until we were able to drive off Yellow Cat and
rescue our cat from its perch high on one of the window displays.

Yellow Cat has somehow learned, it need not stop at the door. During the last incident Yellow Cat chased our cat all the way
into the shop, up the stairs to the second floor and all around our comfortable little nest up there.

At first Lyudmila and I could only laugh at the two cats as they raced about in the apartment screeching and hissing at one
another.

Then furniture and other household items began to tumble and things became quite serious. Yellow Cat would not give up the
chase no matter what we did. Cold water didn't even slow it down. At some point during the free-for-all, Yellow Cat found the
cat food we leave on the floor for our cat at all times.

Now everyone knows, once you have fed a cat, you own it. Yellow Cat stopped to eat. Now, every evening about dusk,
Yellow Cat stops by our store for dinner, It marches into the shop with only a precautionary hiss over its shoulder toward our
cat as it marches straight for the our cat's food on the floor upstairs in the kitchen.

When we tried to convince Yellow Cat, it was not welcome. We were met with arched back, upright fur, bared teeth, bared
claws and a long low screech which could not be misread. Yellow cat would put up with no interference by us. I guess the only
thing we can do now, if we want to leave the shop doors open, is to get a big dog.
 
 

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