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The Cat and the Kitty
or: The Sword and the Siamese
This weeks grab bag turns up the collected edition of Shadow and Flame. Kitty and Lockheed race off to Japan to save Lockheed’s girlfriend… hi-jinks ensue.
While I wasn’t wild about the plot element of disguising Lockheed as a cat I figured I might as well have some fun and so I used the greatest cat the world has ever known as a model; that legendary cat of my youth, Tomcat. We kept Tom because he was the runt of the litter. He turned into a miniature puma. He was 18-19 pounds at fighting weight.
Cross-eyed and kinky tailed, he had fangs that could chomp your hand right off as he was so fond of reminding you. Not that he ever tried. He’d just grab my wrist with his teeth while wrestling, pretend to eviscerate my forearm with his back paws, and give me that look, “I could do it.” I’d freeze in acknowledgment and he’d turn me loose, “As long as you know,” and we’d go back to wrestling.
I’m not much of a cat person but, Tom… Tom was the coolest cat ever.
Happy Trails
Smitty
