Ambush

One night soon after we moved into our present house, as I got home, I heard a far-off mewing sound. I followed it to a pile of scrap lumber behind our house, and could tell it was a young kitten. I figured it had gotten lost in the pile somehow. I called to it, but it wouldn't come out, so I went in the house in the hope that its mother would take care of it.

The next evening, I heard the same mewing from the neighbor's garden. I once again followed the sound, and saw a tiny kitten, its eyes closed, crying plaintively in front of a saucer of milk. I picked the little critter up, and noticed that there was something wrong with its eyes so it could not see. Perhaps it had been abandoned by its mother for that reason. So, I carried it home, knowing the helpless ball of fur would push all my wife's buttons and get excellent care. I remember it fit easily in the palm of my hand.

Sure enough, Kandie laid eyes on the kitten and immediately started cleaning up her eyes. She dispatched me to the store after a can of cat food (all our cats eat dry food), and by the time I got back the kitten was seeing again but still making a lot of racket. I remember that when we set the open can of cat food in front of her she laid into it with gusto, but was still mewing while she ate. No manners at all!

Once her tummy was full, she went to sleep. After that, we noticed that when she was eating she would hiss and growl at Kandie if she even got near her. But I could walk right up, pick up the cat, pick up the food, whatever, and she was perfectly happy.

She is a tortoiseshell, looking like a white cat that somebody had poured butterscotch topping over, as if to make a sundae out of her, so I named her Butterscotch. We soon changed her name to Ambush when she invented a game to play with us. She would wait between a couple of boxes (we weren't completely unpacked yet) for one of us to walk by. She would then dart out from between the boxes, bat at our ankles, and disappear before we could even get a glance at her.

Ambush quit playing that game after a while, but still pursues games with more vigor than most cats.

She has a couple of favorite foods that we wouldn't guess a cat would like: bananas and spaghetti sauce. And she loves finishing off the last bit of melted ice cream in a bowl. Her big weakness, however, is whipped cream in a can. She can hear a can of whipped cream being shaken from anywhere in the house, and runs to the kitchen to meow for some. So we always give her at least a dab of it.

One of our sons inadvertently let Ambush out of the house while she was in heat, and as soon as we discovered this we went out into the night in search of her. We found her under a low flatbed trailer across the street, and I almost got her out from under it by using a can of whipped cream. I ended up just picking her up once she decided to come out.

We didn't find Ambush in time to prevent her from finding a boyfriend, so she wound up pregnent. She had one live kitten, who we named Little One. This led to our no-fertile-cats policy, which is still in force at our house.

Ambush often asks for attention by meowing and rubbing against our legs, but only wants just so much. If we try to pet her too much she gets annoyed and leaves.

One funny thing about her involves picking her up. She usually doesn't like it, but if she really wants some attention you can pick her up and she happily purrs and kneads your hand or arm.

Supposedly, Ambush is my cat because I rescued her, but Kandie has spoiled her so much that Ambush hangs out with her whenever she gets a chance.