Fido the Pool Shark

The pool table was free.  I could have never afforded a table like this one.  It was constructed out of solid maple wood with a black stain finish.  The pockets were genuine leather.  The legs were intricately scrolled in a curving foot design.  The add said, “Free to a good home.”    I jumped at the chance.  Borrowing my brother and his truck, we it picked up.  What a beauty!  The man even threw in four cues, a bridge stick, the pool balls, a vinyl pool table cover and an 8 ball rack.

 My brother thought he had died and gone to heaven.  But he lived in a small apartment, so we put the table in my basement.  I always wanted to finish my basement, now with this pool table, I have the incentive. 

But before inviting people over to play in my new rec room, I had the time to practice.  My partner was my rescue cat, Fido.  He was hiding when the pool table was moved in through the bulk head.  Fido is quite the prude when she hears coarse language.  She probably figured that with all the noise and cursing and trash talk, she had better make herself scarce.  Fido is a smart kitty.

But Fido quickly surveyed my new acquisition.  It had a long, flat, table top to stretch out on.  There were balls to swat back and forth.  There was the possibility of a gathering of people to pet and scratch her when using this table, so there was that.  On the whole, Fido approved.

And when Fido heard the clack of the balls after the break shot, she came running and jumped up on the table to play.  She pounced on the apex ball.

“Hmmm, this isn’t going to work.”  Faith thought.

“Do I have to keep you out of the room?”

Faith tried to work around Fido, and tried a bank shot.  But Fido was quick and chased the ball down the pocket.

“MeOWWW! “  Ouch.  That meow is an ouch and Fido’s paw was stuck. What was wrong?

Faith felt  around and in the pocket and gingerly worked Fido’s paw out.  Attached to her top claw was a ring.  Yes, a round gold ring, like  wedding ring.  It wasn’t a toy; it was a nice piece of jewelry.  I brought it closer to a lamp and looked at the inside.  There were engraved initials and a date.  This was a wedding ring.

I immediately phoned the man who gave me the pool table.  He laughed and laughed.  Then he told me this story.

He loved to play pool.  It was a matter of contention between him and his wife.  So much so that wifey said he might as well be married to a cue stick and she took off her wedding ring and placed it on the cue stick.

To retaliate, he picked up that very stick and played a game of pool with the ring on the cue stick.  He cleaned the table with it.  When he finished, they saw that her ring was gone.

She was so angry that she was gone, too.   He looked for the ring in all the pockets and all around the pool table.  But he couldn’t imagine where it went.

Eventually, they reconciled.  But part of the agreement was that he got rid of the pool table.  He asked how he could reward Fido for finding his wife’s wedding ring?

I said, "Oh, no reward.  I was happy that he and his wife reconciled and that the wedding ring will be soon reconciled to its owner.

Fido loves happy endings.

 

 

 

Fido the Hero

 Fido Catches the Thief

Faith’s rescue cat Fido was destroying the newspaper.  For some reason, Fido loved to sit on the paper, kick it around, hide under it, and scratch it up into shreds.  Maybe it was the scent of newsprint?  Whatever it was, it was like cat nip to Fido.

Today however, Fido had separated the pages.  One section of the paper had flown out of Fido’s jumble of chaos.  I checked the date of the paper before going to discard it in the recycle pile.  Much to my chagrin, it was this morning’s Globe.

“Oh Fido!, not today’s paper!”

Fido looked at me questioningly. 

I sat down to read what was left of my Globe.  I had been cleaning all morning and needed a break.  A cup of tea to read what’s happening sounded good to me.

The first thing I noticed was a picture on the page for local news.  There was my raincoat! Yes, my very own raincoat that had been stolen by a salesman.  Yes, I remember it very well because it was so bizarre.  A man had been going around the neighborhood selling solar panels.  He had pushed his way through my front door, reached in, and swiped my raincoat right off the coat rack!

And it wasn’t even a rainy day!  Why would he need a raincoat!

And here it was in this picture.  It was from the police department.  It was put in the paper with the hope that someone could help find him.  He had robbed a group of stores in the Town Plaza.  A security camera had taken a good image of him.  Well, he had a ski mask over his face, so I couldn’t say I recognized him, but I’d know my raincoat anywhere.  I had sewn a button on with the wrong colored thread.  Fido had pulled the button off while playing and I didn’t have that particular color thread, so I used what I had.  Here was that black button sewn on with white thread glaring at me.

“Hey,” Fido.  “Look at this.  My raincoat was used as a disguise to commit a crime.  And I know who did it because I kept his business card after he stole my raincoat.  Let’s call the police.”

Now don’t be surprised if you see Fido in the newspaper.  After all, if she hadn’t pulled my button off, I would never have recognized the raincoat thief.  Fido had inadvertently led the police to the man.  Fido is a hero.

The Raincoat

 

The name of this short story is The Raincoat.  The inspiration for my story is a famous Russian short story, The Overcoat, written by Nikolai Gogol, published in 1842. The Overcoat and Nikolai Gogol have had a great influence on Russian literature.  In fact, it has been called, “The greatest Russian short story ever written.  The story has been adapted into a variety of stage and film interpretations.  And here is my humble offering to add to Nikolai Gogol’s inspirational short story.  It’s a sequel to my Faith and Fido Fables.

It’s now summer and Faith and her rescue cat, Fido, have been together for 3 months now and Faith has grown to love her little feline friend.

It’s a good thing Fido is a talker because Faith would really feel foolish carrying on a conversation to a fur ball.  Today, Faith and Fido are on the screened-in porch planting seeds in small peat pots.  Later, when they’re seedlings, they will go outside in the garden. The planting was interrupted.  Faith was not entirely surprised because she had seen a man in the neighborhood, going door to door.  “I wonder what he’s selling,” she thought.

Fido and Faith left the porch to answer the door bell.  It turns out that the salesman was selling solar panels.  “Presently, the family isn’t interested.  Maybe next year.”

When Faith closed the door, she was surprised to see that Fido’s fur was up on her arched back, her ears were back and her eyes were large and round.  And she was hissing.

“Good grief, Fido, I get it.  You didn’t like that man.  Well, he’s gone.  Let’s get back to our seeding.”

The rest of the day passed uneventedly.  The seeds were all planted.  The porch was cleaned up and Fido had had a busy day sleeping stretched out in the sun.  It was time to start preparing supper.

However, the preparation was interrupted by the doorbell a second time.  Once more, it was the solar panel salesman.  While Faith greeted the man with a surprised smile, the smile on her face froze midway because the man quickly stepped over the threshold and reached over to the coat rack and stole the rain coat hanging there!

It happened so fast that Faith’s smile was still frozen on her face.  It was Fido’s screech that snapped Faith back to reality.

“What?!?!?”

Faith stepped out and ran across the lawn to the sidewalk.  She wasn’t sure which way the man ran because he was gone.

“What do you make of that Fido?”

Fido had no response except to make figure eights in and out and around Faith’s legs.

“I don’t believe what just happened.  How strange!”

Faith picked Fido up and caresses her. “I suppose it could have been worse.  He could have stolen you, Fido.”

Fido purred loudly.

“It’s still bizarre. Why steal a raincoat on a nice, sunny day?”