THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 11, 1994 TAG: 9407090045
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
CATS IN THE refrigerators, the washing machines and the bathtubs. Cat tales continue to pour in by mail because of the Cats Contest sponsored by The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star.
There's no end of trouble a cat can get into, according to readers. Here's one from the Hill family on Summerwind Circle in Virginia Beach saying their cat jumps into a bag with handles and does a Houdini act trying to get out, bouncing against walls, tumbling down the steps, rolling over and over.
A batch of really great letters arrives every day. Writers picked as the top 20 will receive two tickets to the off-Broadway production of ``Cats,'' coming to Chrysler Hall on July 26. Sorry, entries received after today are ineligible.
No doubt about it, there are plenty of interesting cats in Hampton Roads, and readers have been sending us photos of their cats - a surprising number of whom like to jump up and catch door knobs with their paws and swing on them!
One is Shadow, a cat owned by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Lampman of Chesapeake that plays the piano. ``She does a Kitty Cat Concerto in C Sharp'' at 3 a.m. nightly,'' the Lampmans say. The cat turns on the piano's electric keyboard and romp over the keys.
Ever hear of a cat that uses a white plastic ring off a drink bottle cap as a Frisbee? Lois Vastano of Smokey Mountain Trail in Chesapeake says her cat Ariel fetches the rings when they are tossed to her. ``She jumps up in the air to catch her `toy' like a dog with a Frisbee,'' Vastano says. Then Ariel returns the ring to the tosser's hand or drops it at his feet.
Cecelia Anderson of London Street in Virginia Beach has a black cat that hunts. The cat prowls in the woods and rarely returns without bringing something back and putting it on the back steps as a gift. ``She killed 26 moles, 2 voles, one snake and one blackbird last year,'' Anderson noted.
Amazing but true. Ron Hamilton of Witchduck Road in Virginia Beach owns a cat named Ptah that he also calls ``The Janitor.'' Why? ``Whenever one of the other cats uses the litter box, he waits patiently and then covers up anything unsightly.''
And here's a new wrinkle . . . a cat named Dog. Sunny Taylor of Taylor's Landing Marina in Norfolk says she repeatedly refused her daughter's request for a kitten. ``One day I came home to find my daughter with a charming tabby kitten in her lap. Before I could launch into my no-cats speech, she thrust it into my arms and announced, `Hi, Mom. Meet Dog!''' Sunny adds that the cat's name invariably caused trouble with the veterinarian's record keeping.
Ever hear of a cat that licks stamps? Andrea Allen of Norfield Court in Virginia Beach has a tabby named Taffy that does just that. She says the cat likes the taste of the glue and licks the stamps for her whenever there are letters to be mailed.
Lots of contestants put a paw print from their cat on their letters. Here's a nice, sloppy paw print in green ink from Sarah McCall's cat named Mittens. Sarah is 11 and lives on Lowery Court in Norfolk. Sarah says Mittens jumps in the bath tub when she takes a shower and always knows what time it is. ``At 4 p.m., she jumps up on the bar stool to be fed.''
And Pat and Sandra Foster of St. Julian Drive say their kitty does double duty as an alarm clock. They say the cat begins waking them each morning by:
1. Pawing their faces.
2. Lighting the touch lamps by the bed with a press of her paw.
3. Sitting on the phone answering machine button, causing the voice greeting to begin.
And finally, there's a great tale that adventure writer John D. McDonald used to tell about one of his own cats that was never convinced it was raining all over the house. When it rained, the cat would go to the front door to be let out. McDonald would open the front door to show the cat that it was raining. The cat would then go to the side door, which he also opened. Then the cat would go proceed to the back door, see that it was raining there, too, and abandon its mission.
McDonald said that one afternoon there was a very localized shower in the neighborhood. He opened the front door for the cat, as usual. Raining. Unconvinced. the cat moved to the side door. McDonald opened that door. To his astonishment, it was sunny on that side of the house. He reported the cat marched out the door with tail held proudly erect, as if to say: ``See. I knew it.'' by CNB