Scarlett, Chapter 4 - Scarlett Growing up

Scarlett and Kitty settled in to a great relationship and, as expected, Scarlett grew very quickly and was indeed a large kitty.  Both were gray tabby, so they kind of looked like sisters, but Miss Kitty was on the smallish side with very sleek fur and had little other makings other than her tabby stripes.  Scarlett was a bit fluffier and had some white on her belly and feet.  She also had some under her chin.  There were these patches of gold on her, but they were very small, mostly outlining her gray markings and she had tufts of gold and white on her ears.  Miss Kitty's markings all pretty much ran in the same direction, around her body much like a tiger while Scarlett had much bolder markings and the big round patches on her sides. At first they seemed like mother and daughter but this changed as Scarlett grew and became more of a sister relationship after a few months.  Scarlett proved to be very clever at figuring things out.  At first many tasks required a team effort but as she grew she learned to do most things herself.  Together they could open any door in the house, as long as it was not locked.  This caused a good deal of change in the way I did things as I had always left the outside doors unlocked during the day.  The first escape taught me better.  Also, they learned to open the cabinets and chew into the food bags I had under there so I had to start storing all cat food and a lot of other dry goods in hard plastic to keep them out. One other thing that we soon learned with Scarlett.  If you wanted a bath alone, you had to lock the bathroom door.  Otherwise, Scarlett was in the tub with you as soon as she heard the water run!  She was also very curious about tap water and the drains fascinated her.  She would sit and watch as we ran water for various things then try to catch the water as it ran down the drain and out of sight. Non cat people think I am crazy when I talk about cat vocabulary, but cats do have a vocabulary and Scarlett and Miss Kitty were no exception.  One thing I noticed early on was that the vocabularies of the two cats were seemingly totally different.  It was not long, though, before Kitty had learned a whole new group of sounds and the two of them were very vocal with each other and us.  Miss Kitty had always been a very quiet girl before so we were very surprised by the change.. The activity level in the house could be frantic at times with the two of them chasing around and playing.  One day The Kid had come home with a pile of homework and left some assignment sheets lying on my old 1950's Formica table.  The cats were pretty good about staying off things like the kitchen counter tops and the dining table until it was chase time, then all rules went out the window.  Any surface was fair game. I was sitting at the table with The Kid looking over one of the homework sheets when the two of them came bounding down the stairs and zip, Kitty ran across the table top with Scarlett in hot pursuit.  Naturally Scarlett was running as fast as she could when she hit the table top and went leaping after Kitty.  The only problem was, her back feet were sitting on the homework paper, which went flying in the opposite direction of her travel when she tried to jump.  There she was, like a freeze frame in a movie, stretched out her full length in mid-leap but going nowhere.  All she needed was a little red cape and a big red S on her chest!  Cats have facial expressions, contrary to popular belief and right that moment Scarlett had a total look of shock on hers.  Boom!  Down she went right in front of me, landing on her belly with her feet stretched out in both directions.  There was no graceful recovery possible from this humiliating circumstance and Scarlett hated humiliation.  She got up and sat there, blinking, then began the "I meant that" obligatory bath that cats do. My daughter and I were roaring with laughter.  I told her that she had set a great cat trap without meaning to.  Kitty, by this time, was sitting on the floor in front of Scarlett waiting for the game to begin again, and before long they were off on another merry chase.  This time, however, no one came near the table.