Tommy Cat and the useless dog! July 2006

Tommy is our senior cat. We are unsure of his actual age but he appeared to
be about a year old when he adopted us some 14 years ago, so we believe his
age is about 15 or 16. He is grey with very faint stripes on his sides and
tail. His legs, tummy and chest are white and his front paws have little
white fingertip gloves. For a while we just referred to him as "that nice
young tomcat" which, became over time, Tommy Cat. He has always had the
sweetest temperament, getting along with all the other cats, taking on the
role of adoptive daddy to three kittens and even our current outside cat
O.C.

Our next door neighbor, Duffy, has one of those little yappy dogs. Don't
know what breed, some kind of small terrier about a year old, it's blond,
female and barks at everything: squirrels, birds and of course, cats. O.C.
the orange cat especially seems to set it off, probably because of his
visibility against the grass.

Duffy calls it Bailey, but we usually refer to it as Useless or Yappy Dog!
As I said it barks at everything and is generally annoying which is probably
why Duffy usually keeps it outside. Until recently it was on a tie out, but
last week he had a fence installed around the back yard. One of those
split-rail types with wire mesh tacked up on the inside. Fortunately Bailey
can't jump very high or climb and so far the fence has kept the dog in.

The first time Bailey was let off its leash, it immediately went after a
bird. This absolutely horrified Duffy who ran after it yelling "No, no, let
the bird alone!!" Duffy claims to dislike cats, because they kill songbirds,
so you know where he was coming from here.

Anyway yesterday morning I walked over to the fence to see what I could do
about some landscaping on my side. Tom, strolled over with me, but sat down
about ten feet away. Bailey, then comes up to the fence, pokes his nose
through and commenced to bark at me and at Tom.

I had just turned to Tom and said "You know what to do with dogs don't you"
thinking of the time that he sent an overly curious Beagle on its way with a
swat to the nose. Tom sat there looking at the dog, with its nose through
the fence, then calmly walked up to it, puffed up his back fur, cocked his
right paw and directed three or four whacks to the vicinity of it's nose, as
if to say "shut up dog!" I heard a yelp, and the dog backed away, so he
probably connected. Then Tom just turned and walked away.

Tom didn't growl, or hiss; in fact he didn't make a sound! Just walked up,
let fly and walked away! I guess Tom really does know what to do about
little yappy dogs. Good thing there was a fence between them or Bailey, who's
not much larger than Tom is might have gotten a real lesson.

Of course the dog didn't learn anything, when let out, he still runs to the
fence looking for the cats to bark at. We think the whole thing is vastly
amusing since it annoys Duffy no end.