by Cathy Ray

Created on: March 27, 2008

While Butters, our sweet and sour calico, wreaked havoc with her invisible cat friends at home, my husband and I searched far and wide for a new addition to our household. Butters had some "behavioral issues" that we felt a new brother or sister may help to correct. The poor dear was a stray when we first welcomed her into our lives. The year-old kitten enjoyed swinging from the curtains, knocking over trashcans and (our favorite) tipping over any stray open containers. She didn't know any better. We felt that she needed a friend to help ease her transition into life indoors. We searched for weeks. One day my husband called and said, "I found him." We named the twelve-week-old kitten Rodeo.

Rodeo was all paws, ears and heart. His sherbet orange belly and black tiger striped, beige coat won us over immediately. Although he was a bit large for his age, we assumed his size was normal for a male kitten. What really surprised us was his reaction to Butters. As she sat in a corner observing this intruder, her tail puffed and she began to quietly growl. Rodeo was not impressed by her show of aggression. He stuck out his chest, strutted up to her and slapped her across the face with his huge paw. It continued like this for some time. Butters won few battles while, amazingly enough and despite his size, Rodeo won many more than the little calico tyrant. Many nights I went to sleep thinking that when I woke up poor little disproportionate Rodeo would be dead. He was a fighter and needy, as he was always there to greet me in the morning.

As Rodeo grew over the next few months I began to notice some of his unusual behaviors. Rather than clumsily chase his toys (the way Butters does), he would concentrate on his target, his eyes never straying from their goal. In one swift motion he would grab the toy in his paw, look at it and drop the toy, annoyed by the lack of a challenge. He was so precise and calculated, like an animal in the wild. While Butters would exhaust herself running around the house, Rodeo would lie back and observe. Very suddenly, he would lift his body into a striking position and jump on her as she passed. What really struck me as odd was his love of water. He would climb into the bathtub after I let the water out and sit in the remaining droplets.

Rodeo went through a rapid growth spurt and I was beginning to fear that we had brought home a wild animal rather than a domesticated cat. It seems that my fears were not too far from the truth. On our first

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