Magoo - Year One

Since a big day is coming for our big guy, I thought I would write about Magoo's antics over the last ten years...

Magoo was the first cat that I had ever owned as a pet and the first cat that my wife had not raised with her mother. He got his name from a stupid techno dance song that was one the radio at the time. We were trying to think up a name, when we heard the line, "Mr. Magoo, Ya might be blind, but we can still see you." We looked at each other and thought Mr. Magoo was the perfect name.

He was our baby and he was treated like one. I remember the day we brought him home, like a father remembers bring home his child. Magoo sat patiently in my wife's lap as we drove to show her mother our new kitty. He was so cute and we gushed on how well behaved he was. He started digging at my wife's leg and we laughed and said how cute and playful he was. Then it hit us. A stench so fierce it was like being slapped. Magoo had pooped on my wife's lap. She was disgusted and I nearly drove the car off the road I was laughing so hard. We had to put up with the smell for nearly ten blocks.

When we got to her mother's place, Magoo tried to act all tough to the two cats that lived there, Socks and Alyssa (Both since gone to the Rainbow Bridge). He puffed and hissed at them even though he was a tenth of their size. Alyssa was interested in him but Socks ran and hid. Magoo then decided it was time to investigate the apartment and took off at breakneck speed. We were so worried when he crashed into the cat in the mirror without slowing down. He puffed and hissed at this new kitty that had the audacity to attack him. As we were about to leave, we found him sitting so quietly under the kitchen table. We thought he was tired from all his running around. Nope. He still had a little poop left if him and he left it on the floor under the table. Let's see here, less than three hours in our possession, and he has already pooped where he's not supposed to twice.

We got him home without any more incidents. He took to the apartment immediately. He would run out into the hallway every night when we came home and then come running right back in. Only once did he go and investigate another resident's apartment. He simply walked up to the threshold of the door looked into their apartment and then came right back to our's. He mentioned something later about the window coverings being hideous.

My wife used to have one of those thick wire sweater dryer thingies. Magoo would climb up it and walk along the wire rungs. We used to call it Kitty Olympics. It was always part Balance Beam, part High Bar, and part Uneven Bars. I can still see him walking along the wires trying to maintain his little kitty balance. He slipped on the wire one night and for a second or two he hung from one of the wire bars by his chin before he fell to the floor. We laughed at his antics, and thought that might cure him from climbing on the wire rack. It didn't. The next time it came out, he was right back to climbing all over it. He did that until he grew too heavy for the rack to support him.

I also remember coming home one day and Magoo did not run out into the hallway. We were worried since that was his routine. We looked for him and couldn't find our little guy. My wife was upset because she said she could hear him crying. We tried to follow the spound of his little kitty cry. We finally found him. He had crawled behind the VCR in the TV stand and had forgotten how to get out. All we could see at the back of the VCR was his two little blue eyes. He was so happy to see my wife that he did not leave her side for the rest of the night.

One thing about Magoo was that he was a bed cat from day one. He slept at night curled up next to my wife's neck. He would often suckle and knead on her as though she was his momma. My brother found this out the hard way when he housesat for us. He gave us crap for not telling him that Magoo would nibble on his neck at night. I guess if you're not used to it having a animal sink its teeth into your neck might be a bit unnerving.
As I write this, I can see it as though it was happening right now.