Jethro the Cat Tells His Story

Today, I am sharing with you an excerpt from my yet-to-be-released book: Goldstone Weddings. This chapter is from the point of view of the main character's cat: Jethro.

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My life has had its ups and downs the last few years. For a long time, pretty much as long as I could remember in fact, I had lived in a two-story house in Maine. Lucy had needed an assistant, and I was only too happy to fill the bill. She had been kind of sad and lonely when we first moved in together. I remember she told me that she’d only lived in the house about a week or two before she brought me home. Before Lucy’s house, I had been living with an old lady with three other cats. That old lady had gotten sick, and she was going to a place called a nursing home and couldn’t take us with her. I wasn’t really close to the other three cats; they were Siamese, and I just never could relate to some of their ways.

But Lucy needed a friend to cheer her up and keep her on schedule. She tended to be kind of a night owl, and if I didn't poke and prod her, she would maybe never get to bed. And then a lot of times in the mornings I had to exercise my constitutional right to wake her up if she was sleeping beyond my breakfast hour.

We had a nice quiet life living in our Maine house. In the summertime she would sometimes leave the sunroom door open so that I could come and go as I please. The backyard was fenced in, so there were very few dangers outside. The water sprinklers at first seemed to be a problem, but I found out that sitting close to the sprinkler and trying to catch the water was one of the most fun games I’d ever experienced.

The car trip from Maine to our current house in Kansas was pretty traumatic. I hadn't been in favor of the move at all, but I know Lucy was very excited about it. I did a lot of loud protesting every day, but she just ignored me. I think she must have slipped me a mickey or something though because I did a lot of sleeping on that trip. I’m pretty fond of our new little house, but there isn't a backyard fence, so she won’t let me outside. Of course, I have witnessed large cows running through our yard, so I’m not sure I’d want to go out there even if I had the opportunity.

Lucy’s new husband is pretty keen; he’s nice to her and to me, except he won’t let me sleep on their big bed any longer. I’ve been pretty angry about that for the last few days and was a bit surprised when Lucy welcomed me up on her precious couch this afternoon. Normally, I’m scolded if it even looks like I’m thinking about getting up on the furniture, so when she picked me up to cuddle on the couch, I knew it was a special occasion.

Little did I realize that the special occasion would include a new wife for me. Jedidiah and that wild son of Lucy’s came home a few minutes ago with the most beautiful, golden-haired, fluffy feline! She was introduced to me as Mrs. Cat, but when we had some time to ourselves, she told me her real name is Ginger Golden. The silly people at the shelter got her mixed up with another cat and had been calling her by the wrong name. She told me she hoped that we could get the new lady to call her by the right name.

Along with Ginger, they had brought us a couple new beds and a new litter pan so we wouldn't have to share facilities. That was really special because I’m a little fastidious about my private time. But as it turns out, we've decided to sleep together in the same bed. Ginger is even nicer to cuddle with than Lucy is, so I think it’s going to be very nice having a new friend. Ginger confided to me that she had her lady parts removed, so we won’t be able to have any children, but that’s quite all right by me. Lucy has been a handful, and now that I have to take care of Jedidiah too, I don’t think I could have handled children too.

Being a cat has its advantages: lots of naps, good food, sunny spots for special afternoon naps, and nice people to take care of. Oh, I know that Lucy thinks she takes care of me, but I do a lot for her, so I guess it’s kind of a toss-up who does more for who. But bringing Ginger home for me has definitely put Jedidiah way up high on my tableau of favorite people. Being another man, he probably figured out pretty quickly that he had taken my woman away, so he needed to replace Lucy. And while Lucy’s pretty special and hard to replace and I've only known Ginger for a few minutes, I’m sure that she’s going to be a very purr-fect addition to our household.

Ginger has been sharing some pretty wild tales with me. She says that one of her favorite things to do is to escape from the confines of the house and go exploring outside. I’m not sure if that’s such a good idea—but I may just let her talk me into an excursion someday.

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For more adventures about Jethro, Ginger, Lucy, and Jedidiah, please look for my books Goldstone Inn, Volume 1; Goldstone Inn, Volume 2; and Goldstone Weddings--to be officially released this summer.  Pre-release copies of Goldstone Weddings will be available at local book-signings in Enumclaw or by mail-order directly from me.