Streetwalk of Death By Pointy Teeth.

[den]

I heard an extraordinary noise from the front of the house. It started out as a low moan. "mrooooooooooooowr!"

"What the bloody hell is that?" I thought as I looked through the windows into the front yard. There was nothing there except for the fluffy black tomcat. He was staring into the bushes that mark the border between our yard and the lower neighbour's. The cat looked fluffier than normal, and he was really stirred up. "Mroooooooooowr!" he went, and he was answered by a deeper, rumbling growl. Something grey moved in the shadows.

A huge grey tomcat was moving forward. I think he was actually in the process of taking over the black cat's territory and the reigning tom didn't like it, but he wasn't going to have any say in it; the new cat was twice his size.

Black tom moved backward, and the grey tom moved forward. "Any moment now black cat will run," I thought. "And he'll have the crap beat out of him." I was a bit sad, really. Black Tom had provided many moments of amusement for the dogs. I would be sort of sad to see him go.

Sure enough, the black cat broke. He screamed across the front yard with the grey cat following. He zigged, zagged, then in a great leap bounded over the side gate into my yard. The grey cat followed close behind.

I heard Polly and Scruffy bark once, each. The black cat sailed back over the gate. The grey cat didn't follow, but I could trace his progress by listening to the excited yelping of the dogs. There was a loud thud of something hitting the aluminium fence around the back yard, then the collie in the yard behind ours began chasing something.

The black tom settled down on the warm bricks of the driveway to soak up some rays, his ears flicking as another dog in another yard began barking excitedly.

Size isn't everything when you have home-ground advantage.

Dogs-3, Black tom-1, New tom-0

Comments

Pointy Teeth's Diary

[pipibluestockin]

Have discovered new use for loud and annoying neighbours...

Go me.

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

"Just when Black Tom thought it was safe to go back outside....."

(fx: Jaws music)

I hereby unofficially dub the new grey cat Jaws, because it has pointy teeth like a shark!:D

Just what I need before class and the semesters worth o'records management begins (boring)!
*snicker*

[tygermoonfoxx.livejournal.com]

ROFL Nice move on the black tom's part :) You know, I hadn't thought cats were that smart.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Neither had I, but I do now.

*snerk*

[ionotter.livejournal.com]

This admission, coming from a cat??? HERESEY!! UNBELIEVER!! GUARDS!! GUARDS!! Take this ungrateful wretch and force her to endure 16 hours of sleep, followed by 3 odd hours of tearing about the house and ripping apart the furniture, 3 hours of various eatings of tuna, chicken and other tasty things. And then...heh heh heh...force our servants to groom her fur with....THE SPIKY BRUSH!!

REMEMBER, YOU FOOL!! Dogs have masters, Cats have staff.

Cats not smart...feh!

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

Neither had I. Maybe I've just had a succession of very stupid pets...

[iamjw.livejournal.com]

I heard a story once upon a time (probably in alt.callahans, now that I come to think of it). Some of the details may be incorrect but the essence is still there.

Seems the neighbourhood was up in arms about the new delivery truck guy. More than a couple of dogs had been injured under the wheels of his truck and it was suspected that he was doing it on purpose. So, since he delivered at about the same time every day, it was decided to start watching to see if he could be caught, or at least put off from doing more damage.

Which means there were witnesses.

Scene: Cat treed by dog. Dog barking excitedly. Cat makes a break for it....across a limb, onto a fence, into the yard, across the sidewalk - all the while being chased by excited dog.

Cue incoming delivery truck.

Cat pauses briefly at the sidewalk. Onlookers swear cat looked over its shoulder to check dog was still in rapid pursuit.

Cat takes off across the road, swerves into the path of the delivery van.

Cue squealing of breaks and one just-barely-escaped-injury very lucky dog.

Cut to cat contentedly sitting on the sidewalk having a wash.

[kamau-d-lyon.livejournal.com]

That is just all too cat like IMHO. Why take on the intruder when you can let the neighbors (in this case dogs) do it. Cats will work or fight only when they have to.

I can recall a documentary in which a pride of lions sat and watched as some cheetahs took down some game then just wandered over to claim it. Cats do know just how to get others to do their work for them. Just look at what they do to humans (see comment by Ion).