For the Love of Peanut Butter!

So, I know this is coming late, but Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it! It was a relief to be away from school and the fact that there was no internet available to me was even better! Mostly... There was some chemistry homework I could have done had I been able, but hey, I couldn't!

But last Sunday, November 20th, I witnessed something truly... interesting, stressful, frightening, hilarious... a whole slew of emotions.

It was about 8 or so in the morning and I had just gotten dressed for mass. I passed by the glass door to the back porch and saw at least six of our cats lounging around, sitting on the workbench awaiting food, or staring at me through the door. Now, just beyond the back porch slab of concrete is a little terrace for my mom's garden and just because the hill was just so steep there. At the edge almost on top of the railroad ties that make the walls of the terrace was my cat, Rascal. He's the prettiest little fluffy white with patches of tabby ever and thoroughly lives up to his name. As I looked at him, I realized he was playing with a jar, so I stuck my head out the door and called him (because my cats come when I call!). He turned to me very shakily with an empty jar stuck on his head! I ran up to him to examine the situation. He stared at me through foggy plastic with huge eyes that screamed: "HELP!"

This is sort of what he looked like, except this cat didn't make it:

Poor cat! No one saved him :'- (

My brothers' friend was sitting calmly at our bar waiting for my dad and I to drop him off at his grandparents so I walked in and asked him if he was busy, because I needed help. I was doing my best not to panic, but when you're holding a damp panting ball of cat that may or may not be suffocating, it's somewhat hard not to be tense. My dad came over and accessed the situation, and when it was obvious that the jar was not going to come off easily we all stepped outside to begin the operation.

The first thing my dad did was pull out a power drill and change to a large bit. He put it up to the bottom of the jar and began while I restrained Rascal, who was freaking out. The drill poppped through and the cat jerked back just as suddenly. Instead of immediately being grateful that the cat could breathe, my first remark was "Dad! Did you hit his face? Did you hit his face?!" while peering through the foggy plastic desperately. My dad was shouting "I don't know!" and on the point of cussing when I assured him that he hadn't hurt the cat, much to my relief. (The cat sure acted like he had!)

The next thing he did was take out the hacksaw. As if the cat wasn't freaked out enough! Dad started to saw off the bottom of the jar and the cat started squirming like a maniac. I was doing my best to restrain him, but his paw slipped out and scratched my dad's hand. My dad was angry until I told him that the cat's head was halfway out of the jar. We pulled it off and Rascal was free and ran off to clean himself.

All that, just because Rascal was trying to lick the remnants of peanut butter from the bottom of the jar. I hope he learned his lesson. Thank goodness it was just plastic and it came off real easy though.

(Sorry for no pics. I was too busy keeping the cat from suffocating.)