Clareified

Brush with death

Dear readers,
I feel so fortunate to be alive to blog for you today.
As I left my apartment this morning, I heard a strange meowing down the corridor. I locked the door and headed for the stairs, at the bottom, I saw the source of the sound.
A two foot long cat!
I stared at it. It stared, unblinking, at me. I tried to startle it away by stamping my feet, but at that moment, it bolted up the stairs, practicaly lunging for my throat. I ran screaming back to the landing and then dashed up the next flight of stair to the fourth floor. I peered down and the cat, nay more like a possessed Bengalese tiger, paced the floor, licking its lips and snapping its jaws.
I ran to the elevator furiously pushing the down button. I prayed the 23rd psalm, as my life flashed before my “slightly cross-eyes” eyes:
My inspired performance as the “little teapot” in kindergarten, the fight with Marsha in the third grade because she stole all my neon, plastic bracelets, alegbra (man, my tenth grade math teacher was evil.)
I saw it all so very clearly. And then, the wonderful sound of the elevator door opening!
I was saved. I got to the first floor and ran out of the building to the safety of the East Coco Beach streets.
Whew.
It’s not the first time that a quote, unquote cat, had tried to eat me. Years ago, I was on a pro bono trip to New Orleans, and the law school housed us in a flea bag hostel with wild animals roaming every floor. I was on my way to the field office one morning, when I was cornered in the hall. Luckily, my friend Rachel was able to distract it, so that Dan could catch it, allowing me to flee in terror.
Oh, the irony of being spared in my youth only to be eaten in my own building five years later.
I know the beast is still out there, but I’m ok.
It serves as a reminder to be grateful for everyday and stop to smell the roses, because you never know when your ticket could be punched by a renegade housepet.

This entry was posted by Dawn Summers on Friday, December 5th, 2003 at 10:45 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.