Hickory Joe and the Sunroom of Doom...

I would consider myself an animal lover. I mean, I'm not posing nude for a PETA ad or anything, but I'll pet your cat, your dog, even your cow. I'm not picky. That was until the day I met....(gulp) Hickory Joe....

As you know we visited my parents in Iowa over the Easter Holiday. Butchie, our Boston Terrier, is an excellent traveler and loves spending time at Omi's house too. So as usual he came along on the trip. Since our last stay in Iowa, my parents got a cat....well a kitten...actually, a monster... His name is Hickory Joe. Hick for short. We really didn't think that the cat/dog combo was going to be a problem. In my experience, Butch sniffs the cat, the cat jumps up on something high and hisses from a distance, case closed. That is what was supposed to happen. Here's what actually happened...

Rob (poor unsuspecting Rob) set up "the meet" by closing himself, Hickory AND my mother into the sunroom. He thought that if disaster struck, at least this way it would be contained. Good Plan. He then let Butchie in by way of the sliding glass door. Bad Plan....I'll say this much for Hickory, he's a fighter...Upon meeting Butch, the cat hissed of course, and then proceeded to ATTACK the dog! Rob, completely caught of guard, intervened and was able to get the cat off the dog, but not without first having the arm of his sweatshirt shredded. Once detached from the dog, Hickory went into a "flying banshee" routine of sorts, which found him hanging from the walls, the curtains and my mother's stomach and legs (yes, we lost 2 more pieces of clothing and some skin). Finally, we were able to get my mom, Rob and the dog extracted from the sunroom. Then we all stood dumbfounded, looking in through the glass doors at this cat, who now has a tail the size of a feather duster.

It was at that moment that my brother, Paige, came in. Now, although my brother is heavily trained and carries a gun and badge, he is deathly afraid of anything that flies. (You should see him around bees and "woe" to the pigeon who flies too low!) So of course, he was the obvious choice to send in next to try to calm the "flying cat". He didn't actually scream like a girl, but he was back out pretty quick... Probably about an hour or so after the episode began and the children were all barricaded upstairs, for their own safety, Paige (armed with a towel) was able to get Hickory into the basement. Where he remained for the duration of our stay. As a second line of defense, Abbey was kind enough to make this poster which she affixed to the basement door as a WARNING TO ALL....