As briefly as possible: Hokey and Pokey were litter mates in a third generation of heavily inbred cats. Though we named 'em at birth, it turned out that while Hokey was high-strung and affectionate (and jet black), Pokey was--uh, retarded (and mostly white, with black splotches). You could accidentally step on Pokey, and he'd look up at you as if to say "why me?"

The fun came when Hokey would do stuff (always involving water) to Pokey while we were out. Two funniest incidents: Hokey got Pokey into the bathtub (an old four-footed job), reached down with his paw and turned on the water. We came home to the sound of running water, and poor Pokey in about an inch of water (good thing the drain was open!). Even better, Hokey got Pokey to walk on the toilet seat (with the lid up) and Pokey fell in. We come home to the sound of pitful meows and a the sight of Pokey with his lower half in the water. Hokey ALWAYS had this look that said "Boy! Do I have a stupid brother or what!".

But they worked together on my favorite incident. The house was old, and the closet in which we kept storage boxes had a door that didn't fit quite right. The cats could turn a paw upside down under the door and pull it open, and they loved to play in there. One day we came home to find the door open and the contents of the closet looking like a tornado had struck. What was priceless was the look on the cats as they coolly came out of the room with the closet BEFORE we even saw the damage. The look said "What you are about to see was done by OTHER CATS! Mean, tough cats from outside of the neighborhood. Heaven knows we tried to stop them, but they were too mean and tough!"

A dog couldn't hide guilt to save its life, but a cat? The ultimate liars!

Come to think of it, I remember the look on their mother's face when she tried to jump onto the molding above a doorway. She landed on it, but since it was only a half-inch wide, she fell off immediately. But her LOOK said "Of course I knew I couldn't land there--I was just showing YOU that it couldn't be done."

Gerry McDowall

Back to Tina's Humor Archives main page