Pesky

Mike and I have had pets almost from the beginning of our marriage. This is our first cat, Pesky. When we arrived in Sicily, one of the corpsmen at the dispensary, Glen Hickman, owned Pesky. Glen and Pesky did not get along well. Pesky would terrorize Glen and in return Glen would retaliate on Pesky. Glen felt the reason they didn't get along was because Glen was gone so much and when he was home Pesky just wanted attention. One day when we were talking Glen said he felt he should give Pesky to someone who could spend more time with him. At the time we were still living in the Total Motel, but we said we would take Pesky once we moved into our apartment and Glen agreed. One night after we moved into our apartment Glen and his roommate, George, another corpsman, were to bring Pesky to our apartment. Glen and George came and Glen was fit to be tied. When he went to find Pesky to bring him to me (Mike had duty that night) he could not find the cat. He looked all over the apartment and called and called the cat, but could not find him. Glen gave up, and they came to the house to tell me Pesky had apparently gotten out of the apartment and run away. I was disappointed. Well, a couple hours later, after Glen and George went home, my door bell rang. Here was Glen and George back with Pesky. He hadn't run away after all--he had been hiding under the washing machine! I will post pictures of Pesky from time to time. Here you can see, he enjoyed playing with yarn. You had to be careful if you left a drawer open anywhere--Pesky felt it was left open just for him to make a new bed in. Pesky would be sleeping somewhere, usually under a bed on in a corner somewhere and you would not be able to find him. If you got the Frisky's box and shook it he would come running. Once we had left a box of Frisky's on top of a cabinet and he got on top the cabinet, knocked the box off, and then chewed a hole in the box to get at the Friskys. He was not a dumb cat.
Pesky also had a ritual every night. As Mike and I would prepare to go to bed, Pesky would run down the hall to the bedroom and get behind the door. As Mike walked into the room Pesky would jump out from behind the door and slap Mike with his paw, then run under the bed. As Mike would get into bed Pesky would jump from under the bed and smack Mike again. This was a nightly thing without fail. On more than one occasion I would call Mike for dinner and he would yell for me to get my cat. Pesky would jump up and cling to the door frame with one paw and slap at Mike with the other to keep him from getting out of the living room.
Pesky also liked sleeping in the bidet. All homes in Sicily had bidets. Pesky felt it was an open area and just for him to sleep in. When you went to take a bath Pesky went with you and slept in the bidet. He would also climb up under the spread and blankes on the bed after you made it. You'd walk in the room and there would be a big lump in the middle of the bed--there was Pesky! I really think the reason he liked the bidet was because it was cool. Remember there was no air conditioning, and in the summer it was really hot--a very dry hot, like a furnace. The marble floors and the porceline of the bidet were cool and that's where he would lay.