Cat of Steel

As you might remember or already know, Chris and I have two kids... err, cats. One of them, Teddy, is a "big boy," which is putting it nicely...

(Apologies for the poor quality, it was taken with my cell phone.)

As you can most likely tell from the photo in which he takes up a good portion of the dresser top, he is big. He weighs a little over 18 lbs. and can easily stretch from our ankles to our hips when he lays on our legs. Plus, he is all black. To the regular passer-by he is probably terrifying, but in reality, he is the biggest cuddly-bear kitty ever and is completely pathetic 90% of the time.

For example, sometime last spring Teddy began to meow, loudly, these most pathetic yowls we had ever heard. And, he always did this when he was in a room all by himself, especially at night when we would go to bed and Teddy would still be in the living room or basement. Chris and I would joke that Teddy had gotten "lost" and was scared and looking for us. That's how pathetic he is.

This summer, we realized that those "yowls" were actually his way of telling us he had something that he wanted to show us or play with. (I know, you must be thinking that we are regular cat whisperers in this house.) For instance, he usually yowls while he is bringing us hair bands (his favorite "toy") or bottle caps (another favorite). Rarely does he actually brings us one of the numerous real cat toys we have bought him, like a catnip-stuffed mouse.

So, bringing this long background story to a close, last night Chris said he heard the similar yowling coming from Teddy after we had gone to bed. He said it sounded more labored or struggled than usual, but he didn't think anything else from it. Remember, Teddy's pathetic. He didn't think anything of it, that is, until this morning when he walked downstairs to leave for work and saw this in the middle of our kitchen/dining room:

Don't mind our tiny overflowing trashcan.

What is it? you ask.... that is one of Chris' tennis shoes. Yup, just one.

You wanna know where it was last night when we went to bed? Not in the middle of the kitchen, that's for sure! It was in our BASEMENT! Not only was it in our basement, but it was on the complete opposite side of the basement from our stairs. Meaning someone picked it up and carried it across the basement, up the stairs, and into the kitchen...upon closer inspection of the shoe, Chris found this piece of evidence:

Do you see them?

Do you see them? On the toe box? Yes, that is two teeth puncture marks on the shoe's mesh upper. Someone, a CAT (or a tiny vampire), carried that up from the basement. And, based on the fact that Chris heard Teddy's labored yowling last night, our guess is that our pathetic cat of steel, Teddy, carried a whole entire tennis shoe up from the basement! Such strength and determination to get that thing up the stairs!! Hilarious!! It is moments like these that I wish I had cameras set up around my house to catch these acts. Or, perhaps kitty-cams!

So, yes, I just wrote an entire post about the happenings of one of my cats last night. Yes, we are crazy cat people for thinking this is hilarious and wanting to share it with all of you! But seriously pet-owners out there, don't you have crazy animal stories too?