Zeke is my cat, whom some of you have already heard about in other posts. He is a big, muscular tabby, who loves to eat. I know, a cat who loves to eat? But he’s got a story behind that, which I’ve told here if you read down; http://screamincutie.wordpress.com/2008/02/04/my-hams We also have two other cats, brother and sister, who’s names are Jack and Jill. Jack is a grey striped little cat, but Jill is even smaller than Jack. She’s a petite calico girly-girl, so feminine and sweet. She’s a cutie, but you’d never guess how good a huntress she is. We should have called her Diana, I guess. The little creature hunts everything, and brings it in close to the house. She’s caught mice, moles and gophers, but her biggest prize by far was the rabbit, at least twice as big as herself! I was the first human to see it, and I could claim to have found her slain prize myself, yet actually it was Pippin who found it. But he still was not the first to find it.

As I have said before, Zeke loves food. As most of you already know, PIppin also loves food. Pippin will eat anything and everything. I took him outside to relieve himself, and when he finished I called him to me and started walking towards the front door. Knowing where we were going, Pippin didn’t come with me right by my side. Instead he took a shorter route around a flower bed that passes a grassy alley between our house and our detached garage. In front of that pass there is a magnolia tree, and when Pippin moved across the opening, he was hidden from my sight by the tree. As it was, I didn’t realize he had gone down that alley until I heard a cat hiss violently, then Pippin shrieked. It was a shriek of complete, blind, and raging fury. I mean, he was mad. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him that angry before. Naturally, I was alarmed, and was at the alley just in time to see Pippin chase Zeke out of sight around the back of the house. He was barking wildly and non-stop. I ran through the alley towards him and saw the rabbit, lying upon the grass in the shade. But though I marveled, Pippin was still making a racket so I hardly slowed down to get to him. When I got there, I asked him what was wrong. He was digging with a vengeance under the porch, yipping his shrill, infuriated yells of anger. I knew then that was where Zeke was hiding. Telling Pippin to back up, which he did at my command, I peered under the porch. But Zeke was nowhere to be seen. Puzzled, I picked Pippin up and started back towards the house. Pippin had always liked Zeke. He would sniff him in a very friendly way, and Zeke didn’t mind him too very much. He was never mean, and since Zeke didn’t run, Pip didn’t chase him.

But when I picked Pippin up, the mystery was explained. His neck was turning purple and swelling at an alarming rate. Apparently, Zeke had been eating the rabbit and Pippin, drawn to the food came to share it with him. PIppin had no food aggression whatsoever, and I know that the offensive move was made by Zeke. Or rather, the defensive move. Zeke must have thought that Pippin was stealing his food, though there was more than enough for both of them, if we were going to let them eat it. So Zeke attacked Pippin, clawing at his “delicate” throat. Pippin, startled and infuriated, chased him off, showing himself less of a coward then some of my family thought. Zeke had clawed his jugular vein, and it was bleeding underneath the skin.

Fortunately, it wasn’t bad at all, just an ugly bruise for about a week, but ever since then, Pippin and Zeke’s relationship has been very strained, to say the least. ;-D