Properly this should be cat tales, but as the story unfolds you'll see why the title.
Gasket and yellow cat were the two offsprings of Po, a beautiful long haired cat. Yellow cat as you may surmise was yellow and probably the dumbest cat I have ever known, however he was not without his redeeming features. Mostly he was loveable and slept a lot. Now Gasket, lived up to her name, she was constantly the source of trouble. The old saying, "blown a gasket" was used to describe a problem of monumental proportions.
We took a trip out West and into Southern Canada this past summer and when we returned home, discovered that the cats had caught a cold or something. Gasket seemed worse that the others so I took her and Po to the vet.
His examination of Gasket revealed no problems, in fact she had gained weight during our absence. However, the vet thought she might have a sinus infection which was causing her to sneeze. He gave (hardly the best choice of words, since it cost me $48.00) us medication for her. Since Po was not suffering all that bad, no medication was prescribed for her.
Well the weather was nice and since I was already near the lake, I thought, why not go sailing. After all, the boat was just minutes away. We had a good strong wind from the South and only a touch of clouds and temperature was in the low 70s.
I tucked the cat carrier aboard and off I went a-sailing. In the middle of the lake, I thought there was no reason to keep Po and Gasket in the carrier for the whole day so I let them out. Po promptly climbed into a shelf with the spare towels. Gasket found a good secure hiding place behind the extra sail bags. And, I went back to the business of sailing. All well and good.
You may know that when you change direction on a sailboat, the boom comes across the cockpit and the head sail flaps in the breeze until you have gained control of the direction in which you want to travel. That's exactly what happened when I tacked. Of course, the boat tips from side to side and there is lots of noise.
When this happened, Gasket came flying out of the cabin and must have leaped at least 10 feet into -- the lake. She immediately started swimming toward shore into the wind. And, I had to figure out some way to get her back on board. I dropped the head sail and steering the boat, I came along side Gasket who was going 90 miles an hour toward shore. Thought if I dropped a towel along side her she would grasp the towel and I could pull her back aboard.
I tried the towel trick but she would have none of it, just ducked under the offered towel and continued on. My first recovery was past. So back around with the boat, this time I was on the windward side so the boat tipped about 10 degrees toward the water on Gasket's side. This time I thought I would offer her a bigger target, the cabin curtain. As I passed her, curtain in hand, she had tired appreciably and yet she still would not grasp the curtain. So, I reached into the water and caught her by the tail and brought her aboard.
She was one tired cat. Just laid in the floor of the cabin on top of a towel and stayed there! After sailing for a couple of hours more, I put Po and Gasket back in the carrier and sailed for home port. By the way, Po never left her place amongst the towels.
I dried Gasket off, best as possible and she had pretty well recovered by the time we got home. Interestingly, her sinus infection has mysteriously healed itself.
I'm probably the only person you know who would spend good money on a dumb cat then take her out and try to drown her!
For a story by William Bartram about his crow or,
James Cook's story about his pet bear or,
Benjamin Franklin's obituary to a pet squirrel or,
for information about Joe Wortham or,
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