My Cat Saved My Life

We had just bought a house on five acres with four fish ponds and the day we started moving in, a stray cat wondered into the yard. I had never really liked cats and had planned to get a dog as soon as we got settled into the house. He was going to be my companion- my bestest bud.

It was late morning and I was patching the back porch screen when my two girls came to me with the cat. "Don't even think about it. You girls know I hate cats."

"Come on, Henry," my wife said from the kitchen. "We're in the country now. It's an outside cat and won't be any trouble."

"Just keep it out of the house and away from me," I said, turning back to the screen that I was trying to repair. "As soon as I get my dog that fleabag will be history."

The very next day I was on the sofa admiring the view of the ponds through the sliding glass doors when the cat push through the screen (which I thought I had repaired the day before) and came boldly into the living room.

I snatched him up, carried him to the garage door, tossed him out and headed back to the screen with a rolled up newspaper. I was going to smack him as soon as his ugly head pushed through the screen. But I saw him meandering down towards the ponds and went back to the living room.

The girls were in school and the wife had gone shopping so I took advantage of the quiet by taking a nap on the sofa.

I don't know how long I had slept but I awoke to the soft rustling of paper. Opening my eyes, I was facing the back of the sofa and heard the sound again coming from behind me. I had left the sliding glass doors open and dropped the newspaper in the living room floor before I lay down so I thought the cat had come back in while I was asleep.

Gritting my teeth, I whirled up from the sofa and froze dead in my tracks at what I saw. Right there, in the middle of my living room, not four feet away from me, was a six-foot rattlesnake!

I'm a dead man, I thought, staring headlong at a vicious killer with no way to defend myself. Slowly I backed away and got up on the sofa. My heart began to pound furiously as my body filled with adrenaline. I was pinned in and my legs trembled so bad that I don't think I could've ran even if I had found a way around it.

Then the rattlers sounded and it began raising its head and moving closer. We hadn't hung any pictures yet or set out any decorations so I had nothing to use as a weapon. Sweat broke out all over me as I desperately looked for a way to escape but there was none.

Ultimately, I knew that when it struck at me I would have to try to grab it by its throat. I drew my arm back and braced myself, expecting it to lurch forward. Then it paused. I mean, it just kind of lingered with its head raised, staring right at me, almost as if it knew what I was going to do.

But then it began to move forward again, defiantly inching closer. I knew I wouldn't be able to stop it before it bit me and I honestly thought I was going to die. My hand was wide open ready to reach for it when suddenly, out of nowhere, the cat pushed through the back porch screen and fast as lightening he had that enormous snake by the throat! I couldn't believe what I was seeing!

The little cat had clamped its jaws into that snake's neck like a vice grip and in a shrieking frenzy he rolled it all over the living room!

Poised on the sofa, still scared out of my mind, I watched the cat's claws dig into the snake's long body, growling, screeching, ripping it to shreds until it was barely moving.

I fell to the sofa shaking from head to toe staring at the now lifeless creature that nearly killed me. The cat shook itself then casually strolled over to me, rubbing affectionately against my still trembling legs...

My wife had picked the girls up from school after shopping and the three of them came into the house through the kitchen carrying shopping bags. They paused, staring at the dishes of milk, water and tuna on the floor by the refrigerator. Turning to me, their eyes flew wide open when they saw me sitting in my lounge chair petting the little ball of fur sleeping peacefully in my lap.

"His name is Bud," I said with a proud smile. "My bestest buddy."

*Note*

This story is fiction, based on my personal experience with cats and snakes.