THE GARFIELD CHRONICLES

It’s been a while since I, Garfield the Magnificent, have regaled you from my two-legged’s blog. But it’s about time. She’s been in the hospital lately, and while I’ve missed her, it gives me an opportunity at the computer.

The biggest change in the household, and indeed in my existence, is the arrival of another cat. That’s right, another cat. And not just any cat. A small female Manx, which I’m told has tiger stripes and a very, very short tail, so she fits the bill. Her name is Samantha.

Samantha has been challenging to say the least. Since I outweigh her four times, I’ve been able to exert myself in certain areas, but over time there’s been Samantha creep.

She used to stay in the other bedroom, but now she shares Mister and Missus’s bed with me. At least she has the good sense to stay at the bottom of the bed. One day she even took to sitting on the top of my cat tree, for all the world to see, but only that once. She has a cat tree of her own in the other bedroom. But I got even. I went and jammed myself into the house on her cat tree.

Samantha is very finicky about water. She likes to sit in the bathroom sink and drink from the faucet, and she demands fresh water in our bowls every day.

She is also a stranger eater. She likes dry food and will swill down a few spoonfuls of our favorite tuna with seaweed, but she leaves what’s left to me and eats my dry food. Samantha likes turkey and chicken, which I won’t eat. And she likes to be brushed – with my brush!

The worst of it is, when I challenge her, which I have to do a couple of time a day to make sure she knows her place, she fights back, hissing and swiping. Then we chase each other from one end of the house to the other. I’ve never had so much exercise!

Occasionally she will rub up against me, but I know it’s just a ploy. And I’ve given her head a lick or two, but just in preparation for a challenge.

Missus told me Samantha had a rough life. She was captured as a stray, but not wild, somewhere far away in the state. She was pregnant, but no one knows what happened to her babies. Then she was shuttled here and there until she came here. Maybe her time living outside is why she likes to drink water from the faucet and picks up water with her paw to drink.

Samantha told me she really wants to go outside. She’s escaped on her own twice, when she slipped out the front door while Missus was talking to a neighbor, but she only ran around the house and came when Missus went to get her. Once, Mister left the patio door propped open with a shoe. Samantha went out on the patio and persuaded me to go with her. I’ve never been outside.

I didn’t like it much, especially when Missus screamed at me to get back inside and went after Samantha. I think Missus got Samantha a harness, which she might use to take her outside when the heat is no longer melting the sidewalk.

So that’s what’s new in my kingdom. I’m not sure Samantha will ever be a loyal subject. Until then, I’m just going to relax.