Day 144: Revenge of the kitties

   

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 144: Revenge of the kitties

As some of you may know, I have a bad back. To relieve some of the pain, my son bought me a Dr. Scholl’s back massager a few years ago. Most of the time, the massager lives in a draw in a cabinet, but on occasion when my back is particularly bad the massager is placed on a seat on the sofa.

Yesterday was such an occasion. I don’t know what I did, but over the weekend I injured my already painful back and I was in a terrible state. While the Dr. Scholl’s back massager can’t perform miracles, its vibrations are rather soothing. It has a low, medium or high setting, as well as a heat or no heat option.

As you can imagine, this massager was of interest to the cats. Charlotte, Gabriel and Holly have seen the massager before, but for Halley and Greyson this was something new. They approached and sniffed, their head bobbing left and right and up and down. What was this thing? What did it do? Was it alive? Could it hurt them?

Eager to satisfy Halley’s curiosity, Dieter picked her up and brought her closer to the massager. She immediately started squirming in his arms. She wanted nothing to do with this thing.

Alright, he wasn’t going to force her and instead picked up little Greyson. Young and trusting as he is, he didn’t fight daddy and allowed him to be placed on the seat of the massager. Under the watchful eye of Halley, Greyson sat on it, walked around on it, sniffed and seemed to approve.

When he seemed at easy with the massager, Dieter switched it on. Maybe Greyson would appreciate the soft vibrations. Well, that was a mistake. He leaped off the seat, landed on the carpet and turned around in disgust … what the hell was that?

Up next, Holly. Dieter had only just picked her up and carried her to the seat when she already started fighting me. NOOOOOOOOO!!! She was having none of it.

The same with Gabriel. With him too it was a case of … Let me go, let me go, LET … ME … GO!!!

After these negative reactions, he wasn’t even going to try with Charlotte. Charlotte is a nervous cat by nature, afraid of anything and everything, including her own shadow. He wasn’t going to risk her having a heart attack so he didn’t bother reintroducing her to the massager.

But Charlotte surprised him. She jumped in the sofa, walked over to the massager and sat on it. Did he dare switch it on? Why not. As soon as the massager purred at the lowest setting, she looked down and started pawing at the seat, obviously not understanding what was going on underneath her feet. Having investigated and approving of the vibrations, Charlotte did the unthinkable … she lay down and snuggled up again the backrest of the massager. It would seem that Charlotte’s old bones and muscles could do with some soothing too.

Later on that night it was time for Halley and Greyson to take revenge on Dieter. At bedtime, he called them to come in from the balcony. As expected they didn’t listen. They sat on the ledge, looking at the moon and the stars, the people down on the parking lot and the passing trains.

If the mountain wouldn’t come to Mohammed, Mohammed would go to the mountain. Dieter picked up Halley and carried her inside. Then he went back to retrieve Greyson. However things didn’t go according to plan. As soon as Dieter deposited Greyson inside, Halley jumped back outside, and once he had her inside, Greyson slipped outside. While he went for Greyson, Halley practiced a case of evasive maneuvering and before Dieter could grab her out she was again, followed at her furry heels by Greyson. Dieter was back to square one. Eventually he got them both inside and they sat looking at him with a smug look on their faces. This clearly had been fun for them and a regular case of cat juggling.

They seemed to think … you messed with us (Dr. Scholls massage seat) now we messed with you.