Sunshine, The Possessed Cat

Introduction

My Uncle Tim tells the story of Sunshine, the Possessed Cat. The first question that may come to mind is, "BUT AREN'T ALL CATS POSSESSED?" Apparently some are more possessed than others, as this story illustrates.

One more editorial note before we begin: My grandmother, who plays a major role in this story, has been known to dispute many of its pertinent facts. But in Texas the stories get better with the telling, and Uncle Tim has been telling this story since the late '80's.

Sunshine, The Possessed Cat (as told by Uncle Tim)

It was 1987 and I was attending Texas Tech University. Out of the blue, Mom called me up and asked me if I could take care of Sunshine, the big black-and-white cat that we had grown up with. Mom had recently migrated to Dallas and she and Sunshine were currently living with my Aunt Lou. After a few weeks of this arrangement, Aunt Lou announced that either Sunshine would be moving out, or both Mom and Sunshine would be moving out.

I wasn't thrilled with the prospect of having a cat in my tiny apartment, but how could I say no to Mom? She quickly made the six-hour car trip to drop Sunshine off.

Shortly after Mom had departed, Sunshine began racing up and down the stretch of my long narrow apartment, over and over again. Whenever any friend would come over, Sunshine would zip between their feet, causing them to lose balance and almost crash through my glass coffee table. It wasn't long before no one would come to visit me.

After a week of this, I called Mom up and said, "What's up with Sunshine? He's not the same cuddly animal that I knew from my childhood."

There was silence on the end of the phone. Then Mom said, "There was this incident..."

My Aunt Lou was into crystals and gurus and just about anything else attached to the New Age Movement. A few weeks prior, Lou had decided to hold a seance at her house in order to contact her dead husband. Two things happened during the seance:

1. All the lights in the house went out.
2. The cat lost its mind.

I'm holding the other end of the phone taking all of this in. After a moment of silence, I said, "You gave me a possessed cat?"

Mom replied, "We don't actually know that it's possessed."

Shortly after this conversation, I woke up in the middle of the night. The door to my apartment was standing wide open, and the cat was gone. After spending the minimal amount of effort possible looking for the thing, I resolved myself to the fact that Sunshine was hopelessly lost. I closed the door and went back to bed, relieved to be rid of the creature. I never saw Sunshine again, but I can only assume that it joined the legions of the damned as they trek their ghoulish way across the haunted regions of the earth.

More from Tim

A big thanks to my Uncle Tim for volunteering to be my first guest author! If you'd like to read more of his work (it's all super funny and highly recommended), you can find his articles at: http://www.outsmartmagazine.com/?s=tim+curfman

Pretty Rainbow Cat

A Stray Cat 

We owned Pretty Rainbow Cat when I was roughly four years old, so the details of this story are a bit fuzzy. Here's what I do remember:

We took in a cat that was living in our neighborhood because she was just too pretty not to! My older sister Megan and I named her Pretty Rainbow Cat because she was a black Calico, so she was basically all the colors cats can be at one time. In case you don't know what a "Pretty Rainbow Cat" might look like, here is a picture of a black Calico for reference. (To be honest, I think PRC was way uglier than this cat. I couldn't find any photo documentation of her, but even as a four year old I thought she looked a bit... rough.) 

Photo Credit: Dieter Simon (licensed under Public Domain)

Not long after giving Pretty Rainbow Cat a home, my family decided to move across the state. Which, at the time, meant driving a pick-up truck with many of our possessions about six hours east on the highway.

At this point in the story, dear readers, you may once again choose your own ending. While ending #1 may not be the most satisfying, it is the story I was content with until recently - when I got the full story from my father. While ending #2 may be more complete, you will almost certainly regret reading it. You have been warned!

Ending #1

As someone who had not fully formed the ability to retain memories, I remember arriving at our destination without Pretty Rainbow Cat. It was just me, Megan, my mom, and my dad. What a shame! I really liked that cat! I guess we found her a new home before we left... 

Ending # 2

I recently discovered that we intended to bring Pretty Rainbow Cat with us on our journey. The five of us set out in the truck, but only four of us made it to our destination. As it turns out, cats do not like to be relocated. I now faintly remember that we took turns attempting to comfort Pretty Rainbow Cat, as she was meowing and very distressed to be in a moving vehicle. This strategy would've worked out fine, had someone not rolled down a window while we were on the highway. Apparently Pretty Rainbow Cat decided that she would rather take her chances jumping out of a car moving at full speed down the highway than stay with us for one more minute. 

I remember having some mild anxiety as a child any time we would have an animal in our vehicle, thinking that it would somehow escape. I would constantly check to be sure they were still with us. Now I know why. 

Chocolate-Covered Raisins

Pets are family

I am fairly new to this whole "pets are family" business. I mean, I've always believed in the idea of it. I've always claimed that my pets are family. But it wasn't until recently that I realized that some people mean this more literally than others.

When my husband and I first started dating he procured a doggie for us to love. And then I learned how difficult it can be to actually train an already full-grown animal. Because despite the fact that I had owned more animals in my eighteen years than most people do in a lifetime, I had never actually taken responsibility for training one.

Differing Opinions

Here's a paraphrased conversation we had about it at the time. (It should be noted that during this time I was technically living with my grandparents. My dad had been very clear that he didn't want me moving in with my boyfriend the day after graduating from high school. Which meant that all my rarely used possessions were at my grandparent's house, all my regularly used possessions were at Stephen's apartment, and I kept the everyday essentials in my car.)

Me: Oh my god. This sofa smells like urine.
Stephen: (sighing) Angel peed on it again. I already cleaned it but the smell doesn't go away. I'm probably going to have to gate her in the kitchen tomorrow when I go to work.
Me: Why don't you just, like, permanently leave her in there? She's clearly incapable of learning to pee outside.
Stephen: ....That doesn't seem very fair to the dog. She's getting there. That's the first accident she's had in a week.
Me: It doesn't seem very fair to me when I'm over here trying to seduce you and your couch smells like dog piss.
Stephen: Well, this isn't your house. It's Angel's. And you're trying to get her locked in a tiny kitchen indefinitely.
Me: I don't really see the problem here. She's a dog.
Stephen: Yeah, well, dogs are family.
Me: (laughter) ... Wait... you're serious right now?

Today, almost eight years later, people often assume that Angel was originally my dog. Because I am head-over-heels in love with my dog. Then I have to admit to them that, no, Angel was originally adopted by Stephen. He painstakingly trained every bad habit out of her after years of neglect from previous owners. And now she is my perfect puppy. She has her run of the house every day. She is better potty-trained than some of our friends after they've had too much to drink. She is a big part of our little family.

Angel is not sure how balls work.

So although I have my fair share of... questionable... pet stories, I like to think that I am a reformed pet owner. If anyone questions my love of my dog, they need only to look around our house. Where Angel has three beds in various locations throughout the house and a small shrine dedicated to her on our mantle. (Is it that obvious we don't have kids?) This shrine includes a small quilt of Angel's face, made by my mother-in-law.

You can see the original photo of Angel here.
(insert shameless plug for my MIL's business)

The Incident

We're lucky people and Angel is a lucky dog. She was especially lucky to be family on one occasion in particular. It was after a midnight showing of one of the Twilight movies (Eclipse, I think?) and someone-who-will-remain-nameless left an unfinished box of Raisinettes in our bathroom trash can. (Hint: it was one of my sisters but I have so many that I still feel like I'm protecting the guilty.)

As you might have already guessed, Angel found the box and ate the chocolate-covered raisins. Being the wonderful pet owner that I now am, I caught her in the act and was able to recover the box with about twenty chocolate-covered raisins remaining. I immediately texted the sister in question (Still could be the little one, y'all. She has a cell phone!) and asked her how many raisins had been left in the box. She said maybe seven. And since I had about twenty, I knew she was not a reliable source and that I had to get this dog to the vet.

At the time I was concerned about her chocolate intake, but the vet told me that he wasn't that concerned about Angel ingesting a small amount of milk chocolate (Hooray!). However, she was getting her stomach pumped anyway because apparently any amount of raisin is, like, instant kidney failure for some dogs (Boo!).

And that's how I came to spend a small fortune on our dog for the first time. For three to four years following this incident I managed to spend more money on my middle-aged dog's medical bills than on my own. When I asked my husband for feedback on the amount of money I was spending on things that probably wouldn't kill our dog he said, "Yeah. That's a lot of money. But this is our dog."

Yes. Right. She's a member of the family, after all.

Catshare

Half a Cat

Since publishing the list of pets I have owned, people (okay, mostly my grandma) have wondered how I ever managed to have half a cat. Did we have a deformed cat that only had half a body? Did we have an especially obese cat that somehow counted as one and a half cats? I told my grandma that she would just have to wait and see! The real answer is very simple - I was once invited by my very kind Aunt Carolyn to "own" a cat of hers. 

She was actually about half the size of
a normal cat, so that makes sense.

Pet Ownership

The concept of pet ownership is a little bit strange. Can you really "own" a live animal? I used to think so! For instance, when my parents would admit to people that they owned four or five dogs, they would say, "Well... we have four (or five) kids so they each have a dog of their own!" And they were right. It was always that way in my house. Everyone had one animal that they preferred over the others in the house, and which they claimed as their own. Even if the animal was clearly inferior to the other dogs/cats/birds it was still yours and, therefore, the best.

After the tragic incident with Brittany Beason, everyone was desperate for a way to get me to stop talking about Brittany Beason. Around this time, we visited my Aunt Carolyn, who had a couple of new kittens (a common theme - they love animals as much as we do). I especially liked one of the kittens, and my aunt decided that I could keep her! Of course, I couldn't really keep her, because we were all still going along with the charade that my dad had "cat allergies". But I could share her! 

Catshare Rules

How do you share a cat, you ask? Well, here are the rules as far as I can tell: 

Cat Owner Responsibilities

1. Take care of cat
2. Take pictures of cat 
3. Share amusing stories of cat via phone/letters
4. Allow sharer of cat to pet/cuddle them when they are around
5. Pretend sharer of cat is in the owner

Cat  Sharer Responsibilities

1. Enjoy cat cuddles
2. Enjoy cat pictures
3. Enjoy cat stories

I would recommend this sort of "catshare" arrangement to anyone. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

We named her Cordelia (after the character on Buffy, obviously). And she was just as beautiful and feisty as her namesake. 

A letter from my aunt telling me about Cordelia's adventures!

Kitty in the City

At the peak of their cat ownership time, my aunt and her family lived in the country. There, the cats were free to roam and interact with the local wildlife. However, when they moved to the city... things changed.

Cordelia and the opossum.
You know what they say about curiosity...

After moving to the city, Cordelia escaped the safety of my aunt's house and was hit by a car. Thus fulfilling my cousin's prophecy to all their new cats ("You're gonna get runned over"), and ending our catshare arrangement. Though I'm sure I was very upset by her death, I found that in addition to the reduced responsibility required for a catshare, I also had reduced sadness over her passing. I have not owned a cat since, nor do I have any plans to. But I would participate in a catshare again. Please contact me if you have any interest in allowing me to "own" one of your cats. (But also, be aware of the risks involved in letting me take ownership [even hypothetically] of your animal...)

I was also recently reminded by my aunt that Cordelia was a mommy. One of her kittens, Paris Dale, is now 9 years old and has lived with their family her whole life. It just goes to show - there is always hope for the next generation! 

Animal Shelter

One time we were running low on dogs. We might have only had two at the time and I think we had a recent runaway, so we were trying to fill a hole in our broken hearts. My mother and I went to the local animal shelter to "rescue" a dog. 

Rescue Mission

We began by walking the aisles of the shelter and looking at all the adorable dogs. We happened across a Boxer puppy that was super cute. Having decided that we could not live without this animal, we attempted to take it home with us. As we waited in line to speak with someone at the shelter, we started thinking of what we would name him. The two of us at an animal shelter were like two kids in a candy store. I'm sure we thought of something ridiculous to name him. I remember it was a male Boxer. We had a history of ridiculous animal names, and this one would be no different. Let us now refer to him as "Box". 

Interview Time

The animal shelter conducted a thorough interview with us before allowing us to take Box home. Here are some examples of responses that we may have given to these questions. 

1. Hey, don't I know you two? 
Probably. We have had a few dogs run away and we almost always reclaim them from you. 

2. What brings you in today?
We recently lost a dog, and we are coming to find a replacement. 
I'm sorry to hear that. 

3. Do you currently have any other dogs? 
Yes, one English Setter (pictured below) and one Dalmatian. 
Oh, yes. I remember the English Setter...

Gracie, the English Setter, was an escape artist and famous at the local animal shelter!

4. Do you have any other animals living in the home? 
Yes, we also have two cats - Brittany and Sylvester. But they all get along since the dogs stay outside and the cats (mostly) stay inside. 

5. Where would you plan to keep this puppy?
Outside with the other dogs. We have a covered porch and a gate that is (usually) locked. 
(significant look from animal shelter employee)
...or we might keep him in the garage for awhile...

6. Do you have any experience training a puppy? 
...Oh, sure. We've had several dogs before. 

7. Can you provide vaccination records for your other animals? 
...Yeah. It might take a few days to get all of that together...

Mission Failure

Ultimately, we were not allowed to take Box home with us. My mother was not pleased, as she felt we would be a perfectly adequate home for a dog that might not have any other options. The shelter seemed to think that Box could do better, though. And he probably did. He was super cute.

Brittany Beason

This is not a fairy tale, but let us pretend for a moment.

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful black cat. She came to a family at the perfect time, just when the youngest daughter of the family was grieving the loss of a friendship. She filled the young girl's broken heart with joy and became her new best friend. The cat's name was Brittany Beason.

What's in a Name? 

I have already alluded to Brittany Beason at least once, and this probably won't be the last you hear of her. You may be wondering why she has such an oddly specific name. Well, there's a story for that.

As I have mentioned previously (or, as you may have guessed from my habit of lingering on stories about my long-deceased pets), I was a rather dramatic child. Around the age of 4, I attended a daycare center called Sunshine Playhouse (nicknamed "Sunshine Stinkhouse" by my sister, who was not a fan). I had a friend at this daycare center named Brittany Beason. (This was my pre-literacy days, so I'm not totally sure of the spelling here. All I know is that I loved this girl and we were best friends.)

One day on the playground, she told me she was moving. Like, immediately. This would be our last day together. I cried for days. I was sure I would never see her again. (Which is true, by the way, so maybe I had an appropriate reaction. Don't judge me! [Also, Brittany Beason if you're out there and not too scared after reading post this please comment on it! I miss you...])

Anyway, I was devastated. For about two weeks. Until I got a new best friend.

New Best Friend

She was smaller, feistier, hairier (as far as I know), and ended up being a much larger part of my life than her namesake. You guessed it - Brittany Beason! Below is a picture of her on top of our fish tank (the cat, not the preschooler). This very fish tank was responsible for countless deaths, one of which I'll mention later. Right now, we've got bigger fish to fry.

What a beautiful animal.

Brittany Beason was a bad ass cat. She came and went as she pleased. She was the boss of all the neighborhood cats, who liked to congregate under the cars in our driveway in the winter. If we didn't hear her meowing at the door at night to come in, she would wedge herself between the broken screen on my bedroom window and the glass and meow until I opened the window. The first time she did this I was almost scared to death, as she was completely black and I only saw a pair of yellow glowing eyes outside my window. Later, I came to enjoy the ritual as she almost always slept in my bed.

I'm Not Overreacting

At this point, my father has stopped reading this post. Which is for the best, really.

I mean, to my father's credit he probably thought one day I'd grow into a mature adult who would forgive him for getting rid of my BEST FRIEND. But too bad! I've done no such thing and despite his best efforts I'm just not that well-adjusted. I did learn an important lesson, though. Sometimes life isn't fair. Sometimes life is so unfair that your dad develops a "cat allergy" roughly eight years after getting a cat that you have fallen in love with. Go tell your therapist about these things. Or, if you're like me, vent about it in a very public venue. Whatever works.

I do take some comfort from the fact that I'm fairly sure my father would just live with his "cat allergy" if he had to do it over. Because, to the rest of the family's chagrin, I bring up this story at even the slightest mention of the words "cat" or "allergies". My husband has actually told me that he thinks that I have been too hard on my father about it. Can you believe that? I mean, I have now been pissed off about this incident for more than half of my life. I'm not going to just "let it go".

Yes, dear readers, that is the punch line. You may be wondering how this cat died. I don't know! We gave her away to a family that didn't have "cat allergies". Though I'm sure she is dead, as she would be roughly 21 years old at this point. Feeling unsatisfied with this ending? Well, too bad! So am I!

The End.

One Bird, Two Bird, Brown Bird, Bluebird

Bluebird

When I was about five years old, we had a pet bluebird for the space of approximately two weeks. Here's how it happened - I found a baby bluebird that had fallen from its nest. I went and told my mom and older sister to come and look at it because it was super cute. 

Megan: I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to pick it up. The mom won't take it back if you touch it. 

Mom: (quickly glancing in each direction) I don't see it's mom anywhere. And I don't want our cats to eat it. I'll just wear some gloves to pick it up. 

When the mother bluebird returned to the nest later that day, my mom tried to reintroduce the baby to the mother by holding it up in her gloved hands. I guess her body language didn't communicate the message of, "Here you go! I saved your baby!" very clearly. Or maybe my sister was right, because the mother bird gave zero shits about taking that baby back.

So, we had a new pet. A baby bluebird! I knew a lot of interesting people with a lot of interesting pets, but none with a baby bluebird. This was going to be awesome!

Baby Blue

In a previous post I said I was having trouble remembering the baby bluebird's name. I now remember that we called it Baby Blue after the George Strait song, of course. Because that song isn't depressing enough, we later got to be reminded of a dead pet when we heard it. (Also, Baby Blue is not to be confused with my first cat, Old Blue, who may or may not make an appearance in a later post.)

We set out with the best intentions. I remember my mother calling the local animal hospital and being given instructions to get a heat lamp for the bird and a dropper with some sort of baby food mixture to drip food into the baby bird's beak. It would need to be fed every two hours and the heat lamp would need to be on a timer so that the bird was never too hot or too cold. I'm not sure at what point my mother regretted having brought this bird into the house and letting us name it, but I know that she must have. Maybe around the time that she had to set an alarm to wake up every two hours during the night or buy actual baby food for a bird. However, she set to work right away and bought the necessary supplies and equipment to be this bird's new mother. The baby bird nursery was arranged in the bathroom, on one corner of the tub.

At one point, we even made a trip downtown to visit an exotic pet store. My mom asked the salesman for resources on caring for a baby bluebird. The man then got into a verbal confrontation with her, explaining to her that it was illegal to have a domesticated bluebird. She said something like, "Well what do you want me to do? Just let it die?" And he suggested that she turn the bird over to animal control. We left the store quickly without another word to the salesman.

I remember being very distraught the whole way home in the car thinking that we were all going to jail for housing an illegal pet. I stated this concern several times to my mother, who ignored me. I think her patience with the whole bluebird situation was wearing rather thin.

A Downhill Turn

At some point, Baby Blue's situation took a turn for the worst. Despite following all the rules (except for the one about not taking a bluebird into your home), the little bird was just not doing well. It was becoming pretty clear that the bird was not going to make it.

I should admit that I was a rather dramatic child. I think when my parents knew that the death of this bird was inevitable, they warned my sister and I that we should say our goodbyes. I think the bird held on a little longer than expected. I distinctly remember at least three mornings before school where I took some time to cry over the little bird's bed and tell it a heart-felt goodbye as I was sure it would be dead by the time I returned home. I'm sure anyone would have thought that I had known the animal my whole life, rather than approximately 14 days.

One night, Baby Blue passed away. But not before we took in another wild bird that we found outside.

Brown Bird

At some point during this whole ordeal, our cats did attack a small bird near our home. I came across an injured brown bird and, having not learned my lesson, told my mom about it. I think since Baby Blue's prospects weren't looking so good Mom thought that we might forget about that bird dying if she saved another bird instead! Or maybe she had just invested so much time and money in bird-saving equipment that she thought she might as well save any wild bird she came across. I'm really not sure what the logic was here, but she brought the bird into the house.

It quickly became apparent that this bird was in even worse condition than Baby Blue. I don't even think we named it. I think that even as a five-year-old child I was like, "Nah. Let's not get our hopes up on this one."

The brown bird made a noise that we'd never heard from the bluebird! That was kind of neat, at first. Until it became obvious that it was making that noise out of distress and because nothing we were doing was actually helping to repair any of its internal injuries. Then the bluebird starting making a distressed noise, too. Like it learned it from the brown bird. Then I think we all started making distressed noises, because we had two very ill animals living in our bathroom and no idea how to turn the situation around.

When my father came home one day to find that we had - yet another - dying bird in the house, I think he was a little distressed.

Dad: "Why in the hell do we have two dying birds in our bathroom?"
Mom: "Shhh. Don't say that. We are going to save them."
Dad: "Oh, God. What happened to that brown one? Are those teeth marks in it?"
Mom: "Yes. We rescued it from being eaten by our cats."
Dad: "You should have let them finish the job. There is no sense in letting it die in here!" 

Hard to say who was right, really. I mean, on one hand, the bird-rescue project kept us busy for a few weeks. And I think there were probably some good lessons to be learned from it. But the birds still died in the end and our cats never got to enjoy eating them. So, I'd say, the victim in this situation is still pretty unclear. I mean, you could argue that everyone was a victim. The birds, the cats, my mother, my father... but especially me. Obviously. Because it is now twenty years later and I am still debating the merits of bringing wild birds into the house to attempt to nurse them back to health.

P.S. I realize that my first two posts have been about birds, but I'm trying to ease you guys into the bigger stuff. You have to build up a tolerance to this kind of story.