We are Siamese if you please, we are Siamese if you don't please

I think it would be sad to see Soot, a grimalkin*, lounging around, sleeping all day, no longer active, just begging for food and leaving stinky nuggets that I have to pan for. That's how it is for Jake. No one seems to love him, doesn't care that he's aching, doesn't care that he would be terribly sad if someone were to leave him for three weeks, but what's the difference, he's not getting anything much now. He's that proverbial middle child. He did try to go the squeaky wheel route by developing a nose-scratching habit that eventually wore out the skin of his nose and we'd tell Linda that it only ocurred when she and Larry left for Florida, but she's one of those and liked to claim that it was just allergies, even though it disappeared when they came home...But I partly blame myself because he was quite close to me and when we got Soot I thought "oh how cute, now I'll have two cats". I was a little wrong on that point...when Jake met Soot he chased her down, ready to KILL, I think, even chasing her behind the sofa and scarying the poor thing to death. Now for people who don't know Soot, she's one of those that will never ever forget a hurt you've caused her. We call her vindictive, but she's my baby so no one else can call her that! So one night, when Soot was older and I was asleep we heard this huge noise and a cat screaming. We immediately thought, "oh no! Sooty!" and what we saw was Jake running in terror from the room, and a triumphant Soot standing there, with tufts and tufts of orange (Jake's orange) hair floating or nestled on the ground around her. He never even thought of going into that room again. But they've settled down and no longer really bother eachother. Soot's new target would be the dog. This is another, funnier, story. When Linda first got the dog, she (the dog) didn't know which rooms were the rooms she was allowed in and which weren't. By the way, Soot has a special room that no other animal is allowed into (this is the same room that Jake is terrified of and the scene of the incident). So one day Soot came out to inspect the new dog in the kitchen, and the dog, a terrier, caught sight of this new cat and suddenly got it into her head to chase Sooty from the kitchen, through the living room and into Soot's special room. I ran, thinking only of the danger that Sooty would be in if the dog were to corner her and bark, because it was a playful dog, yippy and so forth. I got to the door of the room and suddenly a streak of a dog comes running out, tail (or should I say stump) between her legs, howling away, to the kitchen. Soot then strutted out of the room with something like a mischievous smile on her face. So cute. Then I petted her on the head and realized then that she could take care of herself. Ever since then the dog leaves her be, and sometimes begs Linda to carry her if Sooty is just sitting there. Once in a while Soot will chase her around just to keep her in line, and if she makes too much noise Soot is ready to attack. Now don't get us wrong, she may be a bully, but she was pushed by the other animals. She is the sweetest kitty towards us, and will even "bunch" against me and stand there when I'm doing something. She'll come in and tap-tap Rich when she wants some kind of attention from him. Tap-tapping is this phenomena (where she learned it from we don't know) where she stands on her back legs, uses one paw to keep her steady, usually on his chair's arm and then with the other she taps him on his arm. "Hey! Pay attention to me." It's my belief that when no human is in the room she'll press the white spot on her chest to become any thing she wants to be. I think in the Jake incident she pressed it and said "form of scissors!" and cut his hair off, with the dog it was "form of a boot!" and kicked her out of the room. You know she's funny too because when we're watching her she'll drink her water with her paw, taking the water into her paw and sipping it that way. We call it "dainty" drinking. But I've caught her, when she's thought no one was looking, lapping away like a normal animal would. Something very very human about her. Strange, but lovable.

*Grimalkin a domestic cat; especially : an old female cat.

Okay I know this post was supposed to be about Jake but it took a weird turn somewhere and I couldn't stop. Must be that white spot. Oh look! she's in the room...she's looking at me, her paw has gone to her spot, oh no! she's growing..oh kdjfgkdljfkdslmfsdfnmnfgjrnnnn