Mazarati the Third

by Tim
(The neighborhood)

Prologue, one day this cat showed up on my doorstep and wouldn't go away. So I took it in assuming that he was abandoned by his mother. I named him Mazarati. That cat lasted about 3 months before it disappeared. Don't know what happened but it was just gone.

A year later an identical cat showed up on my doorstep and wouldn't go away. So I took it in and named it Mazarati the Second. Now this cat was very unpopular with my neighbor. My neighbor was a recent immigrant from a country that considered cat a delicacy. Anyway that cat disappeared in about 3 months.

My neighbor adamantly denied that he ate my cat and said he didn't know it was my pet. Not too big of a loss considering that this cat was always fighting. So it was probably killed in a fight.

So then my good friend offered me a new kitten. Amazingly this cat looked exactly like the first 2 cats. So I named it Mazarati the Third, Maz for short. Now this cat was the coolest cat ever. He soon became the most popular pet in the neighborhood.

Except for the Boxer dog down the street he got along with everybody and all the their pets too. This one dog would always chase Maz, whenever he saw him, but could never catch him.

Story: One night Maz went out for the night. He was a great mouser and loved to show me his catches in the morning. For many years their weren't any mice, rabbits or other rodents in the neighborhood.

So this one particular night Maz was just screaming and fighting all night long. The next day he didn't have anything to show me. Maz was alright except for some small scratches. To my amazement this happened again for the next 2 nights.

I thought can't be. Could Maz have finally met his match. I couldn't believe it, he'd never lost before. Now Maz was very smart and had this way of telling me what he wanted.

The next day I let him out and he took a few paces and looked back at me like I should follow him. So I did. He led me around the house and into the back yard. Every time I stopped he would stare me down until I got moving again.

Maz finally took me to the back porch and started pointing like. So I got down on my hands and knees to see what it was Maz wanted me to see. Lo and behold a Possum had moved in underneath the back porch.

I started to back away thinking I could call animal control to have it removed. But Maz let's out this meow that was like "where are you going? I got it under control."

To my shock Maz darted under the porch and attacked that Possum. Holy crap I thought, this can't be good. About 3 seconds later Maz comes tearing out from under the porch, with that Possum in high pursuit.

Maz made a beeline straight for the yard with the Boxer dog in it. Sure enough that Possum couldn't catch him but was right on his tail. Maz led that Possum right into the yard with the Boxer and that dog took off after Maz like a pistol shot.

Now Maz was lightning fast so I wasn't worried about him. But that poor Possum wasn't so lucky. That dog caught that Possum and gave it a good thrashing. Maz jumped up on a fence post and sat there with a big grin that kind of said "see I told you I had it under control."

Well the Possum managed to escape that back yard but I never saw it again. I guess it figured It had met it's match and moved on.

Maz lived to a ripe old age and died a natural death, but I will always remember him as the coolest cat that ever lived.

Tim