Fire Cat

I heard a story somewhere about fire cats. When the sugar cane fields in (Insert tropical island here) needed to be burned down so the next crop could be planted, people would light a cat’s tail on fire and let them go into the fields, thus spreading the fire thoroughly and fast. (Now don’t get all PETA on me,I thought it was an Urban Legend.)

Anyway, Fin has been known as the fire cat around here because of his total disregard for fire. I can’t have lit candles anywhere he might be able to get to because he has no sense of personal safety. Let's just say I’m not the only one in the house to sniff a lit scented candle.

Well, this morning, our fire cat became a water cat.

The first clue was the swoosh, crash, bang, crash, swoosh, swoosh splat we heard. The second clue was the wet cat crouched on the kitchen rug. The third clue was the copious amount of water all over the house.

As I’ve said before, occasionally Cleo likes to pee just outside the litter box. I put one of those car trunk protector pads under the litter box to catch such accidents and have an extra so I can change them out as needed.

The current under-the-litter-box-cat-pee-protector–pad one was soaking in a Tide with Bleach solution in our bathtub because of a different kind of early morning soaking by Miss Cleo. Fin fell/jumped in. Not liking the warm soapy bath, he jumped out and ran around the house thus dispersing water like fire in a cane field.

The curious thing was Markus’ and my immediate reaction. Sparky dived for towels to save the marble floor and I scooped up Fin. I call it the test of a real cat lover versus the only-like-cats-because-they-cuddle-up-to-you FAKE cat person. He calls it a good team effort. I tell you, those ad men can really put a spin on a story.

I say a real cat person is more concerned for the cat. A Fake cat person jumps to clean up water from the marble floor with total disregard for the poor wet terrorist kitten.

I had an aunt who washed her dishes with Tide because she thought dish soap didn’t get them clean enough. Her son had chronic stomach problems because the detergent never rinsed off the dishes and he'd eat Tide with every meal. I was concerned with washing the Tide out of Fin's fur before he licked himself sick. Markus was his own form of fire cat running around and going on about marble and water on the walls and the hardwood floors.

For the first time since his Brazilian wax via the sticky rat trap episode, Fin got a bath and is now sleeping peacefully after his traumatic morning. I got 16 scratches,a wet t-shirt, a fluffy kitty and a clean bathroom floor. Markus, well, Markus is the only one still suffering. He’s still polishing non-existent water spots off the marble.