Delver

by Rachel Palmiero

I have a great life. I have dogs to bug, plants to eat, and a little pet door for my own personal use. If you haven't guessed who I am, my name is Delver. I'm an all black cat who lives with the Mylets. I'm extremely friendly and very curious. Enough about me. Let me tell you a little about my family.

Mr. Mylet is very tall. He has black hair, a black mustache, and very dark eyes. Even though he gets angry a lot, he is quick to make up. He yells and yells about how much he hates cats, but I've found that when no one else is home, he'll come and pet me. Last Christmas he even bought me a whole steak. He's a great guy as far as I'm concerned. Sometimes I've heard people call him Kyle. I just can't figure out why he has two names.

Mrs. Mylet has another name too. Hers is Robyn. If you ask me, that's a dumb name. It sounds as if she's a bird or something. Well, anyway, she is really nice, too. She's a really active person so a lot of the time she'll take me for a walk. That's fun because when I'm with her I get to go to places that otherwise I'm banned from. Like usually when I'm by myself, I can't go anywhere near the butcher's shop. For some reason when the butcher sees Robyn, he'll let me in. I'll never figure that guy out.

Harmon, Forrest, and Lici (short for Alicia) are their kids. Harmon is six, Forrest is nine, and Lici is eight months. I like them when they play with me, but you know how kids are.

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So anyway, there is a little of my background. To tell you the truth, the reason I am writing this is to tell you about the day I found Neve and Kara. They are my best friends. You know up until now I could never see myself socializing with any other cats. I always hated them for stealing my humans, teasing my dogs, or maybe eating my food. Well, that is all in the past now. Here is my story:

It was Monday morning, and it had been one long weekend. On weekends Harmon and Forrest are home from school. It's not like I don't like them, but they get really annoying really fast. That particular weekend Harmon's friends were staying over, and Forrest had taken it upon himself to ruin it for them. He definitely ruined my weekend. Anyway, now it was Monday, and I was so glad they were gone. Usually Monday's are my favorite days, but for some reason this one just felt like it was going to be a bad one. I decided that I was just still a little fed up with the kids. They were still in a bad mood when they were getting ready for school.

I was sitting on the couch at about 11:00 and had just woken up from a nap when I heard all this ruckus outside. I jumped down to look; but when I got to my pet door, it wouldn't open. I was sure that there must be some mistake! I mean, really, why in the world would Robyn and Kevin be mad at me? I started meowing to let them know that there had been some kind of mistake.

Robyn finally heard me and came out to see what was wrong. She saw me pawing at the door but just kept talking about how they needed to keep me out of the way because of the movers. Then she went on to explain that grandpa was going to live with us and that I should keep out of the way until he was settled in. I couldn't think why they needed another human in the house.

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I decided that I needed another nap to pass the time so I went to my favorite sleeping place, Lici's crib. After a good hour or so, I got up to see if this new person was a cat person. I found him sleeping in a chair in the living room and determined to wake him up. I jumped up and started meowing when Kevin came in and rudely threw me off. I simply jumped right back up and started meowing again. For a second time he threw me off! I resolved that if he was going to be stubborn enough to keep throwing me off, I was going to be stubborn enough to keep jumping up. I jumped up again. This time he squirted me with water so I decided I better get out of there before he decided to give me a bath. I ran to my pet door to find that it had finally been opened; it was about time!

I walked out planning to go find Hector. He is the biggest, stupidest dog I have ever met! I found him under a tree chasing his tail. He is so annoying. Why would anyone want a thing like that around their house. My favorite thing to do is sit right where he can almost reach me but can't quite get at me because of his leash. So I did just that. You should have seen him bark and growl. He was so aggravated. I just sat back and laughed and laughed. I love to make him mad.

After I got bored with that, I started walking back home when I heard it. It was two cats talking, and it sounded like they were going to investigate my dog. I ran over there to show them who was boss. I couldn't believe how they weren't intimidated by me. So, anyway, we ended up just talking for a while and found out we actually have a lot in common. All of us hated when other cats took over our stuff. We were all bored so we decided to go do something like chase another cat.

One day about a month later, we happened upon a man who was painting a fence. He looked like he needed some help so being the noble cats we are we went over to see what we could do. When he first saw us, he seemed nice enough. He even came over to pet us. We sat down and tried to figure out how one would paint a fence.

red pawsred paws

We are really smart so it didn't take us long to figure out that all you had to do was get some of the red stuff on your paw and then stick your paw on something. That is exactly what we did so I don't know why that man got mad at us. I think he said something about how the sidewalk and grass don't need to be painted. If you ask me, they would look much nicer if you did. Well, anyway, that guy looked pretty mad so we ran over to my house to hide.

Unfortunately Harmon and Forrest were in the middle of one of their famous fights. Lici was hungry or something because she kept crying. Robyn kept rocking her, but couldn't see that she needed food. I resolved that I needed to get her some. I asked Neve and Kara what babies like to eat, and they said what we eat. So I went to find her a fish to eat. I went to Forrest's room because he has a really big one. I just about had it out when he came in and started yelling at me. I couldn't make him understand that it was for his baby sister, and he just threw me out.

I was going to have to find something else. At last I thought of Kevin's bird. It looked really tasty, and I had my eye on it for a long time. I figured Lici needed it worse then me, though. When I was trying to get the bird, Kevin came in; and he looked mad too. That was okay, though, because Lici had just stopped crying.

Humans never appreciate what you try to do. So Neve, Kara, and I went to find something else to do. It seemed that every time we tried to have any fun, we got yelled at. Now we have just stayed out of the house altogether. Well, I still live there but I do my visiting outside of the house. Well, I have to go (Kara is calling), but that is my story. Goodbye!

Pair of cats

 


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Note: Rachel was 12 years old when Delver was written.


Delver © 1998 by Rachel Palmiero

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