I was in my eighth year when Yoohoodi came to live with us. He was a long haired, yellow striped, tom cat. He was just sitting at our doorstep one morning when I went outside. Awww the poor kitty looked sooo hungry and meowed so nice as he rubbed against my leg I just had to let him inside and give him a bowl of milk. Then I couldn't figure out why he wouldn't leave.

Well, he lived with us for a few years and became one of the family. We had a fishbowl on the bookcase stand and there were two goldfish in it that Youhoodi would sit and watch. When he thought nobody was looking he'd dip a paw into the water and try to catch one of the franticly dodging fish. He'd been punished for this and always glanced over his shoulder. Thus he never caught a fish. If I remember correctly he never caught a mouse either. He chased them, oh yes, but something in his genes was missing and he was too clumsy, or too un-coordinated to do the job properly.

As long haired cats usually do, he had formed some matted hair balls near his behind and Dad, more than once mumbled, "I've just got to give that cat a trim."

I filed away this info in my memory banks and one afternoon I came home from school and nobody was home. Yoohoodi was starved to near death (or so he indicated) I opened a can of Puss'n'Boots cat food for him and as he chowed down I noticed those pesky hair balls around his behind. The light bulb of a great idea lit above my head.

"I'll just do dad a BIG favor and trim off those unsightly hair balls."

I found mom's sewing shears and lured old Yoohoodi. "Here, kitty, kitty." He said "Meow" and came to me. I put a hammer lock on him and began to trim, or more aptly, butcher. Cats are hard to hold when you're doing something they don't like and I trimmed one side too short, so to compensate I trimmed the other side a little bit, too. It still didn't look even. Snip, snip, snip...well I thought I'd done a very neat job.

Dad arrived home just as I let old Yoohoodi loose and stood there with the shears in my hand. Dad took one look at me and then at the cat, with his tail angryly a-twitch. He laughed so hard he fell to the floor and between his laughing spells he gasped, "What in the world have you done to that poor cat?"

"Well, gee dad, I just did you a favor and trimmed off those hair balls."

"Trimmed indeed, he'll be to embarrassed to go outside for a month!"

Needless to say, everytime after that when old Yoohoodi heard the shears snip, he streaked for the cellar. That was my first and last experience as a kitty barber.