Amelia & Dido...Da-Da-DAAA

In a break from recent events, I have a story to tell from a few weeks ago, when Amelia and Dido (our esteemed Jekyll and Hyde cat) came to, as Danny so eloquently put it, a perilous juncture.

Amelia was playing happily in her Exersaucer, while I was sitting in the recliner taking care of some motherly business. (I'll spare the blogging world the details on that one!) Dido was making her way toward me but paused by the Exersaucer to rub her face against it and sniff the toys, as she often likes to do, partly out of genuine kitty-like interest and partly to get her share of my attention.

Because Dido is infamous for being sweet and innocent one minute, in attack mode the next (hence the "Jekyll and Hyde" reference above), I watched her carefully but was fairly confident based on previous experiences that she was only trying to get my attention and not headed for 'Mia's feet (or any other appendages, for that matter!). So in my efforts to make sure Dido didn't attack Amelia, I was momentarily oblivious to the curious little eyes and hands that were mesmerized by this very soft and pretty kitty.

Then all of a sudden, with a swiftness I could not have predicted, Amelia's little hand grabbed Dido's tail! Now it may seem that the clutch of a four month old (four months at that time) would be weak and of little effect. Oh no, my friend. There's something to be said for the power and strength in the uncoordinated yet fully capable grasp of an infant. (If you've ever had a baby pinch you, you know what I'm talking about - it HURTS!) I sat there, in shock, and saw Amelia's life flash before my eyes, thinking, "Oh dear, she's got the cat's tail and the cat is going to flip out and bite her head off!" and offering up a quick prayer, "Oh, Lord, help me save my child!"

This was one of those rare moments when it felt like the real-time events unfolding before my eyes were moving in slow motion yet I had only seconds to make matters right before someone, or something, got hurt. And unfortunately, that motherly task I was involved in at the time was binding me in a way from which I couldn't easily free myself. Nevertheless, I was desperately trying to reach out and get a magazine, a book, ANYTHING in between the cat's jaws and my baby girl! All the while, saying "Amelia, let go of kitty's tail..." (which of course was useless).

Dido responded somewhat anticlimactically (thank goodness!), merely turning her head around and letting out a pitiful little meow, after which Amelia released her grasp. Almost panicking at this point, I was able to thrust a papered Dry-Cleaner's hanger(odd but the only item within my reach) in between Dido and Amelia, just in case Dido should decide to make a sudden revenge lunge at Amelia (which she didn't).

In the end, all was well. And as I sat there breathing a sigh of blessed relief, Amelia, darling little girl, looked up at me with her sweet beautiful eyes, and I saw the evidence of her bold and daring move: a fist full of cat fur.

~posted by Ang