Tasha The Terrible

Tasha had quite a day today! We are having an usually warm winter in Central IL and it's been in the 50's all week. I turned off the heat and opened the windows in the house to get some fresh air. I also slid open the sliding glass door that leads out to our deck, but the screen door was still closed. Within ten minutes of doing this, Tasha was looking out the bay window, basking in the sunlight. Suddenly, she turned her head and looked back to the deck. I turned to see what she was looking at, and lo and behold, there is a cute white and gray cat standing there looking through the screen at us.


Pic taken through the window screen. Oh, that darn Stray Kitty!!!

Being the novice cat owner that I am, I was TOTALLY unprepared for the response that Tasha would have to this cat. While I started to walk over to ooh and aww at the kitty, Tasha leaps down, runs to the screen and proceeds to let out the most God awful, gutteral sound I've ever heard. She had ears back, full-out hissing and screamming and I didn't know what the hell to do. I was just about to call for Mike when he came sprinting up the stairs. He had heard Tasha's moans and thought she was hurt.

All we could do was close the door and the blinds, which did nothing because Tasha kept poking her head throught the blinds, and shoo Stray Kitty away. Tasha calmed down, but then ran over to the bay window and started hissing because Stray Kitty was now in our front yard and rolling around on our doorstep.

I closed the windows, but Tasha kept freaking out. We filled a spray bottle with water and sprayed stray kitty through the screen door hoping this would chase him away. Well, it didn't. He made himself nice and comfy under the bushes, and unfortunatley, Tasha could see him in the downstairs windows. Again, Tasha went apeshit and was actually jumping and lunging at the windows.

Mike got a couple of pots & pans, went outside, and banged them together. This finally did the trick. Stray Kitty got the hint that we didn't want him hanging around and he fled. Tasha calmed down, but I'm anticipating a return visit.

We also discovered that Stray Kitty (or some other animal) had freshly massacred one of the many bunnies that hop around our backyard. I mean, this thing was destroyed. I couldn't even tell at first what it was, I could only see it's ribs and blood. It looked like the bunny had been cut in half longways. YUCK. Bunny's head was laying about two feet away and there was fur everywhere.

Guess this kind of answers my question as to whether we should get another cat:) Although, I do think Tasha would be fine with a spayed female and a SLOW introduction. All I know is, Tasha is all about protecting her turf, so strays better beware of Tasha The Terrible!!!