Fluffy, The Dog-Rider

When I grew up, we had a beautiful, long-haired, brown cat called Fluffy. She was the most eccentric and obsessive cat I have ever known.

When she had kittens, one of them had fluffy ginger fur so I named him Sandy. Fluffy had three other kittens in the litter besides Sandy, but she would spend more time washing and grooming Sandy than the other kittens. So Sandy turned into a real mummy’s boy, a great big sook. If another cat even dared to look in his direction, or come close to Sandy, Fluffy would go at it and fur would fly!

Fluffy never lost a fight; she was a real champion fighter. One day a very large dog, an Alsatian, came into the backyard with its owner who’d come to see my dad about some work.

Fluffy was sitting on the top of the fence in a crouching position when the man and his dog innocently walked underneath her. She jumped onto the Alsatian’s back and dug her claws in. The poor dog didn’t know what hit him. He took off back down the path yelping, with Fluffy riding on his back. His owner called him, but the dog wouldn’t return. >>

Fluffy, however, waltzed back up the driveway, her tail held straight up in the air, with every bit of fur in place as if she had just won first prize at a cat show.