Long-Armed Cat

                            By Marion Fisher

          when I  was about 14 years  old, I was  living with a  sister and
          brother-in-law.   They had a fairly large  cat, a yellow at named
          Peter. One morning  very early, I heard a scratch at the door and
          when I  opened it, Peter  wanted to come in.   Little did  I know
          that  he had a mouse in his mouth  and the damned thing was still
          alive. Peter proceeded to play  with his mouse, batting it across
          the floor. He batted the mouse to a place beneath my feet where I
          was sitting on the  couch.  The mouse took refuge  and headed for
          the first  place he could find to get away from that cat.  He ran
          up my pants leg.   I was quick and caught the mouse  up in a fold
          of my  pants leg and  was figuring how I  could get it  out of my
          pants when the damned cat  with his long arm started  reaching up
          my pants leg.  That cat had the longest  arm I have ever  seen on
          such a small animal.   I think his arm was about three feet long.
          He is grabbing for his mouse,  I an holding the mouse to  keep it
          from biting  me or going  further up and fending  that long-armed
          cat off with my other hand.   Sure would have  been good  to have
          had another  hand to undo  my pants to  get this problem  off me.
          Finally I  yelled and  my sister  came into  the living  room and
          helped me to get out  of my pants, while I was  still holding the
          mouse  and  that  damned, persistent,  long-armed  cat  was still
          trying to retrieve  his mouse.  I finally  extricated myself from
          the pants and  the cat retrieved  his mouse and  promptly took it
          back outside,  Probably thought  I was trying  to take  his mouse
          away from him.