A Loving Gnaw

Loving, my cat, was spayed when I was 8 years old. The surgery was no big deal, but we had the hardest time keeping her from clawing at her stiches. At first, we could just tell her to stop, and she would; but she soon began to ignore us. We then set up a system of keeping small items like her stuffed toys around to toss in her direction to catch her attention. This worked with no trouble at all.

Trouble arrived a few days later in the form of Aunt Clara . Aunt Clara, mother's sister, lived in New York and did not possess the nicest of dispositions. She took an immediate disliking to Loving and would mistreat her at any given opportunity. Rather than tossing the light objects we kept around, Aunt Clara would hit Loving with her cane. If her cane was not available (because mother or I had hidden it) she would throw shoes, books, anything close by at Loving. This went on for over a week.

One afternoon, Mother went somewhere (I don't remember where) leaving me with Aunt Clara. Aunt Clara (I'm really going to have to tell you about her one day) didn't want to be bothered watching me; so she made me lie down beside her while she took a nap. I was sitting on the bed watching Aunt Clara snore when I noticed the bedroom door open slightly. Loving had slipped into the room and was making her way to the bed. She hopped on the bed and had a seat beside Aunt Clara's right foot. She paused for a moment before she leaned down, sniffed the big toe, then bit it. Aunt Clara kicked out her foot and mumbled "Ginny, stop kicking me" and went back to snoring.

Loving waited another minute before jumping back on the bed. I (being the Genius that I am) decided the best bet was to lie down and pretend to be asleep. Loving stretched out on her belly and grabbed Aunt Clara's big toe between her two (front) paws and began to gnaw on the toe.Aunt Clara shot up screaming, "That G-D cat bit my G-D big toe". I pretended to just wake up and asked what was she fussing about (did I mention I am an award winning actress as well). Aunt Clara fussed and cussed for over 10 minutes repeatedly threatening to kill the cat, but Loving was long gone.

All that fussing and cussing must have worn Aunt Clara out because she went right back to sleep. This time she made sure to lock the door after she ordered me to watch tv and let her sleep in peace. When Mother returned home, I met her at the door to tell her about the incident.

"Momma, Loving gnawed on Aunt Clara's big toe", I whispered.

"How do you know she was gnawing?"

I replied, "Because that's what Loving was saying as she bit the toe! GNAW, GNAW, GNAW, GNAW!"