Chapter 5

Spike was a gorgeous cat. He was a silver tabby and his black striping was perfectly symmetrical. His emerald green eyes glowed in the dimmest of light. He was extremely long and slender, with his tail as long as his body. He had the speed of a wildcat.

Elizabeth had found Spike down by the lake several years ago. He had been abandoned by his mother at just a few weeks old. There had been no sign of another cat anywhere, but a kitten that small would have never survived long without its mother. Elizabeth decided to take Spike home and raise him herself. Her father had not approved of this, but Jen had taken the upper hand, something she had rarely done. “A girl should have a kitten,” she told her husband. “I won’t let you take that away from her, Howard. I won’t let you!” Howard said no more about it and Elizabeth was allowed to keep Spike.

At a very early age, Spike had developed a voracious appetite. He took advantage of Elizabeth’s snack times, especially the 11:00pm snack. Elizabeth grew older and grew out of most of those snack times since she had to watch her slim figure.

At 11:00pm every night, though, Elizabeth and her feline companion would eat popcorn or crackers and cheese whilst watching television. Sometimes they enjoyed a bowl of cereal or a dab of ice cream. Afterward, they would play fetch together.

Spike would retrieve anything Elizabeth could toss across the room. She had not taught him this. It started one morning when Elizabeth was writing a letter. She had made an error and threw the crumbled piece of stationary to the floor. Spike brought it back. She threw it down again, several times. Each time Spike brought it back. When Elizabeth realized what Spike was doing she stopped her letter writing and made it a game. Spike had a little rubber salamander that ended up being his favorite toy to fetch.

Spike was a very loving cat, at first. He began roaming the neighborhood and found himself only coming home for snack time. He became very unsociable with everyone except Elizabeth. He became spiteful and mean one time when Elizabeth was late for snack time. She was late by only a few minutes. He had attacked her, leaving a bite mark on her right calf. Her muscle was tender and swollen for quite some time but she kept it clean and treated it with antibiotic ointment. She kept this injury from her parents, fearing she’d have to get rid of Spike, or at the very least have to go to the doctor. She even avoided the truth so many years later, when asked about the scar.