The Cat Who Destroyed My Tree

I should have known when my friend Kim told me that the cute little kitten I was nestled with was dangerous. She was so tiny and the moment I walked in the room, she crawled up to me with her 5 week old claws and fell asleep right in my arms. I was there to pick out one of her 5 kittens, but as most animals do, that kitten picked me.

I named her Xela (Zee-Luh) after my Sister-Cousin, Alex, who spells her name backwards as her superstar alias. Kim told me that she was tough. That she would try take on the dogs in her house who looked at her like they were confused. I knew my work was going to be cut out for me. I expected her energy and destructiveness... I wasn't surprised when she destroyed my Christmas tree last year and the maintenance guys at my apartment made fun of me by singing "Oh Christmas Tree" through snickers. But I didn't expect to become her amusement. Fast-forward a year to Wednesday night...

For the life of me, I can't keep Xela in the house. And my boyfriend has a daughter who is visually challenged, so every opportunity Xela gets, she darts out. However, a few weeks ago, we got the cats fixed and got all their shots, so they've not been as active and I guess I let my guard down.

It was late. My boyfriend and I had managed to pull up to the house at the exact same time, coming from separate directions in different cars. His daughter opened the door and Xela ran out before we could catch her. Before, she'd get out and just stand there, hunched down, not sure what to do. Then, she got to the bottom of the stairs, hunched down, not sure what to do. Well, now, she gets under the car, which leads to about 5-10 minutes of fishing for her on the ground in work clothes. Not cool. So, my boyfriend got smart and told me to stand at the front of the car, while he cranked it. This, freaked Xela out of course, and she ran around me, up the stairs and to the (now closed) door.

I run up the stairs to the door, thinking she was going to go in the house. She sees me, jumps down the other side of the porch and hides. Now, we live in the country and it's DARK, but thank GOD, we put those tags on her and as my boyfriend was running to the side of the porch where she was, I heard her run under the porch and back to the stairs. My boyfriend, now goes near the stairs to try to get her. This whole time, I'm still standing there in the middle of the porch, in front of the door, unable to catch her. She runs up the stairs, between my feet, across to the other side, which my boyfriend had just moved from. The cycle continued...him going back and forth, and me bending down trying to catch her, as she runs between my feet, just to jump down again.

By some miracle of God, I caught her. And we were all laughing so hard, she didn't even get in trouble. And I wonder how I developed hypertension in the last year.