Awww...I don't want you to take Battle Cat out!! Battle Cat sounds cool! Very cool!
We had a Battle Cat once. He turned out to be the most awesome cat I've ever known! We ultimately had him for many years, and as he got older he came inside and lived peacefully with the other critters we have (another cat at the time, and a Labrador pup (who was a maniac)). His name was "Scooter"; that's what the neighbor called him, so we just kept the name. He was an alley cat, tom, to the bone! Just the baddest of the bad asses.
I knew the neighbors had this cat, but they were kind of weird. They had a young son, and I guess they got this cat as a buddy for him when he was very small. (They lived across the street from us, back when we lived in suburbia). It was obvious right away that Scooter was an outdoor cat, and he was fully intact. He was also a bruiser of a tom. As noted, this was one bad-ass cat. In fact, he was such a bad-ass I was actually kinda' skeered of this animal. It was very clear, he could do some serious damage to a person in short order, and he would have nothing to do with people. He'd just snarl and run away. On the rare occasion the wife or I ever saw him he was usually eating some food they put outside for him. He never came inside. This was a true "wild animal".
We had a whole pack of racoons which lived in the storm drains in front of our house. And these coons would come out at night and just tear shit up. They got into everything. Scooter had a vowed war-badge with these coons, and he would regularly take on 2, or 3, sometimes even 4 of these animals at once! Scooter was missing half of one of his ears, he had scars all over him, and fur ripped out. We'd hear him outside at night going at it with these raccoons...all night long. He'd never give up. He'd fight for hours with these damn coons. He'd fight so loud we could hear their bodies slamming into each other and getting thrown on the ground; this was serious stuff. I would have never thought in a million years we'd ever befriend this animal...and I had no intention to trying either!!! Zero!! Scooter was like a force of Nature, and you couldn't stop this animal. Never seen anything like it.
Anyway, around this time, I was actually living out of town in MI (a place you might know, MSB!). We were down in Harrison Twp. though. I'd fly back on the weekends, and this is when I'd see Scooter the Battle Cat. I'd show up at the house and he'd be on our front step. Our front faced south, so in the winter this was a warm sunny spot to lay. The minute I'd show up, he'd bolt (and vanish). This went on for like a year. Then, he wouldn't bolt, he'd just run out into the yard and watch, and if I went in the garage, he'd go back to laying on the porch. I didn't mind Scooter being there because I knew no raccoons dared show up, so this was good. The neighbor never took care of him at all by this point. Their little boy had grown older and outgrown cuddly, furry, little pets (which Scooter never was). So he was on his own.
Well, the wife loves cats, and we had her cat back in MI, but she'd made up her mind she was going to befriend him. First step was feeding him (which she did). Then, it was making a safe place to sleep (which he of course acted like he hated...until you weren't looking and he went right in there!). We eventually came back to the house (along with the wife's female, spayed, cat). Scooter let her cat know on day #1 (in no uncertain terms)..."You stay inside and I'll let you live. You set one foot outside and...notify your next of kin...because you will cease to exist as a cat on that day!" Wife's cat was terrified of this cat! She would run and hide and not come out for the rest of the day, and when she did come out she'd be looking around like Scooter was around every corner! (Seriously, Scooter was that bad-ass of a cat! This animal was pure "warrior"!) After a while, I got a Lab pup I'd been meaning to get for several years, because my old Lab (Bless her heart) had passed away. So, I had this completely insane Lab puppy!
At first, Scooter put Shelby (my Lab pup) on notice just like he did with the wife's cat (from opposite sides of the front storm door). Well, if you know Labs, you'll know they ain't skeered of nothin', even as pups. One day, I wanted to take Shelby outside for a walk in the park by our house. Scooter was there, on patrol, now laying in the middle of the front yard. "Ain't NO animal setting foot in this yard, under penalty of DEATH!"...was the look of this cat's body (language). For my part, I was like..."Fk this cat!! I'll Fk that cat up, bigtime!!" My wife is yelling at me (and panicking) to be nice (I'm not nice...by nature). So I grabbed a 3-iron out of my golf bag and said..."We're going for a walk, dammit!! Fk this cat!!" Scooter saw me and Shelby come out of the house, me with a 3-iron in my hand, and somehow that cat knew today was the wrong day to start some shit. (and he was right! I was in no mood for it.) So, he just laid there in the yard. This was the very first time I ever saw him do something like this. He didn't even move, just watched! (this is a really long story, IRL, so I'm going to fast forward here).
In a short time, Shelby and I would be out in the yard. I had a very strict training regimen with her...training and serious, no BS, Upland and Water Dog training for 15 minutes, buffered by about 25 minutes of fun playtime on both sides of the training session. (I had trained cross-trained gun-dogs for over 10 years at that point) Some training involved going to the park and the lake, and other training was basic skills we could do in the yard. Scooter became a regular fixture for these sessions. And even if he was somewhere else, he'd hear my whistle, and he'd come bounding up from wherever he was and lay down in the yard and watch (just watch).
One day, after Spring had rolled around, we'd finished our fun-training-fun session and we were just chilling on the porch. "Shell" was laying in the yard, and Scooter was there too not far away. This was pretty common now. Except this time, Scooter the Battle Cat got up and VERY cautiously tip toed across the yard to Shelby. I told Shelby to 'Stay!' and she knew by then it meant not only stay, but don't move (at all). She knew Scooter was coming up behind her, but she obeyed. She'd look at me periodically like..."You know this one is on YOU, Dad...right? RIGHT???" I told her it was all good, and we watched Battle Cat approach. (This was a serious milestone moment!) Battle Cat walked right up to Shelby and started sniffing her, very gently. Shelby was a statue...("GOOD Dog!!" (I was very proud of her for staying put)). By this time the wife is at the front door, and she's watching all this go on. We're both kind of shocked. Scooter the battle cat smelled her up one side and down the other, and looked over at me like..."Okay, she's cool." Then he did something I would have never expected in a million years; he proceeded to lay down right next to her and put his head down. I about fell off the porch, seeing this. Apparently, Battle Cat had found what he thought was an ally in crime. When he laid down, Shelby relaxed and eventually put her head down, and they both laid there and took a nap. (no shit!) My socks damn near shot off my feet all on their own!! I went inside and the wife and I were talking about how amazing this all was. At least an hour went by and finally I had to go to the store or something so Shelby had to get up and get in the truck to ride along with me (she went every single place I went, with me, in the truck...except to work). When she got up, Scooter the battle cat kind of half heartedly ran a few yards and then stopped. Once he saw Shelby and I were leaving in the truck, he went back into the shady spot under the tree and laid down again. (tired ass cat!).
I don't remember how long it was, but less than two weeks for sure, the wife had also been working on Scooter in various ways. After a couple weeks, the wife opened the door (and the storm door) one day and called Scooter. We both watched in complete shock as Scooter the battle hardened cat walked right into the house, jumped up on the couch, and started to go to sleep. Not 10 seconds later, the wife's cat decided this was her opportunity to pounce. Well, you didn't pull that shit with Battle Cat cuz he had eyes in the back of his head (and sensors everywhere). Did I mention Scooter was a giant cat? He was, probably the biggest cat I've ever known who wasn't just some huge fat cat. This cat didn't have a single ounce of fat on him, he was solid muscle with some big ol' bones thrown in. Wife's cat leaped, and Scoot was up on all four's, and swatted her cat not only out of the air, but about twelve times on the way down! The message was crystal clear...you DON'T mess with Battle Cat...EVER! It was so devastating that he just went back to sleep. Her cat was now back on the floor, dazed, going..."WTF just happened???"
Some bizarre way, harmony and balance had been reached. Her cat never messed with him (or even close) ever again, and he left her alone. They could both co-habitate with no issues.
We moved away a year or so later. What to do with Scooter the Battle Cat?? He wasn't our cat. So the wife went over to the neighbor's house and started to explain the situation. The neighbor already had it figured out; she'd been watching from out her window all this time. "Take him. He's made a home with you guys like nothing I ever thought I'd witness."...she told the wife.
And that was that. Scooter the Battle Cat moved with us out to the country on a couple hundred acres. He showed a few raccoons who was boss, killed many a rabbit, no mouse or rat dared come within 20 miles of our place...even tangled with a badger one day (that fight didn't go so well for Battle Cat!) Bit off a little more than he could chew that day with Billy the Badger!. But he took his ass-whoopin' in stride like the man he was, got over it, and lived for many years after that happily in and around our house with our animals.
That is a very true story, my friend. Battle Cat must be given a chance. There's probably a cat in there somewhere you never dreamed possible!! Honest.
P.S. - I have so many stories about Battle Cat that even if I started right now, I could probably tell them for many years without stopping! Scooter the Battle Cat was one of a kind.
P.S.S. - Did I ever mention...I hate cats! Just hate them with a purple passion! But Scooter, well, he was different. I'm not even 100% convinced he was even a cat at all!!! I think he might have been an....ALIEN!!
We had a Battle Cat once. He turned out to be the most awesome cat I've ever known! We ultimately had him for many years, and as he got older he came inside and lived peacefully with the other critters we have (another cat at the time, and a Labrador pup (who was a maniac)). His name was "Scooter"; that's what the neighbor called him, so we just kept the name. He was an alley cat, tom, to the bone! Just the baddest of the bad asses.
I knew the neighbors had this cat, but they were kind of weird. They had a young son, and I guess they got this cat as a buddy for him when he was very small. (They lived across the street from us, back when we lived in suburbia). It was obvious right away that Scooter was an outdoor cat, and he was fully intact. He was also a bruiser of a tom. As noted, this was one bad-ass cat. In fact, he was such a bad-ass I was actually kinda' skeered of this animal. It was very clear, he could do some serious damage to a person in short order, and he would have nothing to do with people. He'd just snarl and run away. On the rare occasion the wife or I ever saw him he was usually eating some food they put outside for him. He never came inside. This was a true "wild animal".
We had a whole pack of racoons which lived in the storm drains in front of our house. And these coons would come out at night and just tear shit up. They got into everything. Scooter had a vowed war-badge with these coons, and he would regularly take on 2, or 3, sometimes even 4 of these animals at once! Scooter was missing half of one of his ears, he had scars all over him, and fur ripped out. We'd hear him outside at night going at it with these raccoons...all night long. He'd never give up. He'd fight for hours with these damn coons. He'd fight so loud we could hear their bodies slamming into each other and getting thrown on the ground; this was serious stuff. I would have never thought in a million years we'd ever befriend this animal...and I had no intention to trying either!!! Zero!! Scooter was like a force of Nature, and you couldn't stop this animal. Never seen anything like it.
Anyway, around this time, I was actually living out of town in MI (a place you might know, MSB!). We were down in Harrison Twp. though. I'd fly back on the weekends, and this is when I'd see Scooter the Battle Cat. I'd show up at the house and he'd be on our front step. Our front faced south, so in the winter this was a warm sunny spot to lay. The minute I'd show up, he'd bolt (and vanish). This went on for like a year. Then, he wouldn't bolt, he'd just run out into the yard and watch, and if I went in the garage, he'd go back to laying on the porch. I didn't mind Scooter being there because I knew no raccoons dared show up, so this was good. The neighbor never took care of him at all by this point. Their little boy had grown older and outgrown cuddly, furry, little pets (which Scooter never was). So he was on his own.
Well, the wife loves cats, and we had her cat back in MI, but she'd made up her mind she was going to befriend him. First step was feeding him (which she did). Then, it was making a safe place to sleep (which he of course acted like he hated...until you weren't looking and he went right in there!). We eventually came back to the house (along with the wife's female, spayed, cat). Scooter let her cat know on day #1 (in no uncertain terms)..."You stay inside and I'll let you live. You set one foot outside and...notify your next of kin...because you will cease to exist as a cat on that day!" Wife's cat was terrified of this cat! She would run and hide and not come out for the rest of the day, and when she did come out she'd be looking around like Scooter was around every corner! (Seriously, Scooter was that bad-ass of a cat! This animal was pure "warrior"!) After a while, I got a Lab pup I'd been meaning to get for several years, because my old Lab (Bless her heart) had passed away. So, I had this completely insane Lab puppy!
At first, Scooter put Shelby (my Lab pup) on notice just like he did with the wife's cat (from opposite sides of the front storm door). Well, if you know Labs, you'll know they ain't skeered of nothin', even as pups. One day, I wanted to take Shelby outside for a walk in the park by our house. Scooter was there, on patrol, now laying in the middle of the front yard. "Ain't NO animal setting foot in this yard, under penalty of DEATH!"...was the look of this cat's body (language). For my part, I was like..."Fk this cat!! I'll Fk that cat up, bigtime!!" My wife is yelling at me (and panicking) to be nice (I'm not nice...by nature). So I grabbed a 3-iron out of my golf bag and said..."We're going for a walk, dammit!! Fk this cat!!" Scooter saw me and Shelby come out of the house, me with a 3-iron in my hand, and somehow that cat knew today was the wrong day to start some shit. (and he was right! I was in no mood for it.) So, he just laid there in the yard. This was the very first time I ever saw him do something like this. He didn't even move, just watched! (this is a really long story, IRL, so I'm going to fast forward here).
In a short time, Shelby and I would be out in the yard. I had a very strict training regimen with her...training and serious, no BS, Upland and Water Dog training for 15 minutes, buffered by about 25 minutes of fun playtime on both sides of the training session. (I had trained cross-trained gun-dogs for over 10 years at that point) Some training involved going to the park and the lake, and other training was basic skills we could do in the yard. Scooter became a regular fixture for these sessions. And even if he was somewhere else, he'd hear my whistle, and he'd come bounding up from wherever he was and lay down in the yard and watch (just watch).
One day, after Spring had rolled around, we'd finished our fun-training-fun session and we were just chilling on the porch. "Shell" was laying in the yard, and Scooter was there too not far away. This was pretty common now. Except this time, Scooter the Battle Cat got up and VERY cautiously tip toed across the yard to Shelby. I told Shelby to 'Stay!' and she knew by then it meant not only stay, but don't move (at all). She knew Scooter was coming up behind her, but she obeyed. She'd look at me periodically like..."You know this one is on YOU, Dad...right? RIGHT???" I told her it was all good, and we watched Battle Cat approach. (This was a serious milestone moment!) Battle Cat walked right up to Shelby and started sniffing her, very gently. Shelby was a statue...("GOOD Dog!!" (I was very proud of her for staying put)). By this time the wife is at the front door, and she's watching all this go on. We're both kind of shocked. Scooter the battle cat smelled her up one side and down the other, and looked over at me like..."Okay, she's cool." Then he did something I would have never expected in a million years; he proceeded to lay down right next to her and put his head down. I about fell off the porch, seeing this. Apparently, Battle Cat had found what he thought was an ally in crime. When he laid down, Shelby relaxed and eventually put her head down, and they both laid there and took a nap. (no shit!) My socks damn near shot off my feet all on their own!! I went inside and the wife and I were talking about how amazing this all was. At least an hour went by and finally I had to go to the store or something so Shelby had to get up and get in the truck to ride along with me (she went every single place I went, with me, in the truck...except to work). When she got up, Scooter the battle cat kind of half heartedly ran a few yards and then stopped. Once he saw Shelby and I were leaving in the truck, he went back into the shady spot under the tree and laid down again. (tired ass cat!).
I don't remember how long it was, but less than two weeks for sure, the wife had also been working on Scooter in various ways. After a couple weeks, the wife opened the door (and the storm door) one day and called Scooter. We both watched in complete shock as Scooter the battle hardened cat walked right into the house, jumped up on the couch, and started to go to sleep. Not 10 seconds later, the wife's cat decided this was her opportunity to pounce. Well, you didn't pull that shit with Battle Cat cuz he had eyes in the back of his head (and sensors everywhere). Did I mention Scooter was a giant cat? He was, probably the biggest cat I've ever known who wasn't just some huge fat cat. This cat didn't have a single ounce of fat on him, he was solid muscle with some big ol' bones thrown in. Wife's cat leaped, and Scoot was up on all four's, and swatted her cat not only out of the air, but about twelve times on the way down! The message was crystal clear...you DON'T mess with Battle Cat...EVER! It was so devastating that he just went back to sleep. Her cat was now back on the floor, dazed, going..."WTF just happened???"
Some bizarre way, harmony and balance had been reached. Her cat never messed with him (or even close) ever again, and he left her alone. They could both co-habitate with no issues.
We moved away a year or so later. What to do with Scooter the Battle Cat?? He wasn't our cat. So the wife went over to the neighbor's house and started to explain the situation. The neighbor already had it figured out; she'd been watching from out her window all this time. "Take him. He's made a home with you guys like nothing I ever thought I'd witness."...she told the wife.
And that was that. Scooter the Battle Cat moved with us out to the country on a couple hundred acres. He showed a few raccoons who was boss, killed many a rabbit, no mouse or rat dared come within 20 miles of our place...even tangled with a badger one day (that fight didn't go so well for Battle Cat!) Bit off a little more than he could chew that day with Billy the Badger!. But he took his ass-whoopin' in stride like the man he was, got over it, and lived for many years after that happily in and around our house with our animals.
That is a very true story, my friend. Battle Cat must be given a chance. There's probably a cat in there somewhere you never dreamed possible!! Honest.
P.S. - I have so many stories about Battle Cat that even if I started right now, I could probably tell them for many years without stopping! Scooter the Battle Cat was one of a kind.
P.S.S. - Did I ever mention...I hate cats! Just hate them with a purple passion! But Scooter, well, he was different. I'm not even 100% convinced he was even a cat at all!!! I think he might have been an....ALIEN!!