Scarlett - Chaptern 6 - The Beast in the Chair

When Scarlett first came to our home It was in a bit of turmoil as some of you may already know.  Miss Kitty was at the vet recovering from her miscarriage that day and came home to find a kitten in the house waiting for her.  I was not surprised, then, when my vet's office made several phone calls to check on us over the next few days.  However, when the calls continued past the first days and the questions were mostly about Scarlett, I started to wonder about her.

When she was about 6 months old I took her back in for a check-up and to decide on a date for neutering and was again met with a ton of questions.  "Is there something wrong here?" I asked.  "No," the doc assured me, "I am just really curious as to where she originally came from and how she happened to be at that grocery store.  You do not often see a scene like this and it was even more remarkable because she was so young at the time."

She was examined from head to toe and given a clean bill of health.  The return date was set for a few weeks out  I took her home, again feeling like there was a lot more to know and wondering when I would find out.

Scarlett was getting really big!  I thought maybe she was a Main Coon cat because of her size, but her body shape and tail were all wrong.  Miss Kitty was nearly a year older yet Scarlett outweighed her by a pound.  I wondered how big she would get.

My husband and I decided it was time to replace the old dining room table so we spent a couple of week-ends shopping.  I finally decided on a table with heavily padded chairs and we packed it into the truck to bring home.  When we arrived and were unloading the stuff, both the cats were watching with great interest.  Of course, we had to keep them inside, which was the real challenge, or so we thought.  Since they had learned to open the doors, putting them in a bathroom or bedroom did little good.

This day they were more curious about what was coming into the house than what was going on outside and we managed to bring in the table and 4 chairs before trouble started.  As soon as I picked up chair #5 from the truck and headed towards the door, Scarlett went wild!  She screamed like the demons were on her tail and ran, leaping through the air and attacked the chair!  She was like the Tasmanian Devil whirling and clawing and tearing at this poor chair.  She bit and clawed frantically while I stood there stunned, wondering what had set her off.  All I knew to do was to try and get inside and put the chair down and get away from it before this fit of fury included my arms, hands or whatever else she decided to go for.

Once I was inside my husband could see what was happening and ran to grab a towel to throw over her.  I did manage to set the chair down and then watched in disbelief as she bit the back and seat a few more times, smacked it a few times and then sat on the chair howling like a cross between a lion and a wolf.  My husband reappeared with the towel but by this time, Scarlett was calming on her own.  She started sniffing the chair all over and pushing at it here and there with her paw.  We humans watched this spectacle play out, ready to act if the violence started again, but wisely leaving her alone with her kill.

Poor Miss Kitty had run and hid behind the sofa and was trying bravely to sneak up to the Kid's room for safety.  It was hours before she decided to revisit us.  

After deciding the chair was indeed dead, Scarlett jumped down and came to me purring and rubbing my legs.  She was obviously quite proud to have saved me from a grave danger.  The chair was showing signs of the battle, and since the seat and back were covered with vinyl, it was a mass of bite and claw marks.  We thought about taking it the rest of the way apart to try and see what set her off like that, but on examination of the chewed areas, all we could see was foam padding. Some things are not for humankind to know, I guess.

One thing was for sure, when the vet called to check on us the next time, I had a story for him!