Gizmo

Gizmo has adopted me. I don't really know why, but she has decided that I am her person. Let me emphasize that, while I can tolerate cats, I'm really more of a dog person. Cats are OK to look at, but I would not pick one as a pet. They tend to scratch and bite when they require service. Someone very astute once observed that dogs have masters and cats have staff.

My duties as servant to the cat commence each morning when I come down the stairs. That's when she does her best giant slalom impression between my moving feet. This wouldn't be so bad, but I usually get up around 0500 and don't turn on many lights. A black cat weaving in and out of your moving feet on a dark stairway is disconcerting to say the least. It could be downright dangerous if she weighed more than 5 lbs.

Once she has tried, and failed, to kill me as I enter the den, we check her food bowl, fill it if necessary, and then try to visit our favorite internet sites. After she has eaten, she takes up her place on the back of the chair-and-a-half in the den, and stays there most of the day. Occasionally she will make a patrol of the various sinks and bathtubs in the house looking for a drink from a dripping faucet. When the squirrels start running around the back yard, she'll take up her post on the top of a hutch in the dining room, and watch the activity. About once a week, we need to clean the nose prints off of the window.

Another morning activity is to bedevil Wally. An ambush from under some dresser or other piece of furniture will generally generate a game of catch-me-if-you-can. Usually Wally comes up empty. If he does catch her, he doesn't play hard enough to break her. He's good people, too.

One of her other quirks was her desire to get to the greatest altitude possible. The picture is of her on top of a 7' china hutch. She has not been up there lately. I think she cured herself of mountain climbing when she tried to cross the curtain rod to another display cabinet in the living room. When the mounting hook tore out of the wall and dumped her 6' to the floor, I think her enthusiasm was bruised in the impact.

Like I said, I'm not much of a feline fancier, but Gizmo is OK, for a cat.