Rocky takes a bath!

Summertime is in full swing and there's barely a night we are home and not out doing something on the town. Splash pads, taking advantage of free kid's meals at local restaurants, VBS, we try to soak in as much fun in the two months off before school starts back as we can. With all the fun though, there's still chores that need to be done at the house even if we don't get to them until midnight. With that in mind I have been meaning to tell the story of Rocky's bath a few weeks ago.

Rocky is more like a puma rather than a house cat. He's dark gray with a giant frame that when fully stretched out is the length of a small child. When he parades around the house you can see his muscles flex and if ever he decides to take a nap on top of you in the middle of the night, you know it. Alex tends to be his favorite sleeping buddy since that's what Alex does best; laying around playing video games and napping. It was because of all this togetherness that Mandy & I decided it might be a good idea to give Rocky a much needed and long overdue bath. That's what lead us to scooping him up and soaking him in a sink full of water at 11:00 p.m. one night.

What we didn't consider however were two important details. The first being that due to a recent rampage around the house in which several items were broken, Rocky was not winning any awards for cat of the year. The destruction caused was so severe that I proclaimed that should one more thing come up broken, Rocky would be living a life of complete freedom outside with the other wild animals. The second thing Mandy & I neglected to do was tell either of the boys what was about to take place. We just scooped up the cat and went to washing. So to set the scene; Mandy & I are huddled around the kitchen sink. I've got Rocky by the scruff and forcing him into the water, Mandy is doing her best to cover every area in shampoo, and Rocky....well Rocky has gone full beast mode and is screaming his head off. It must have sounded like a fire truck was barreling through the yard and about to park itself in the middle of our kitchen, because Alex hears all the noise and comes running into the room ready to save his favorite pet from whatever trap it was caught in. What happens next is pure chaos as Alex sees me holding the cat under the running faucet, immediately remembers the threat on Rocky's life I made earlier in the day, and has a come apart!

"NOOOOOO!!! BROTHER!!! DADDY'S DROWNING ROCKY!! AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!"
"HE'S KILLING ROCKY JUST LIKE HE SAID HE WOULD!!!!!"
"WHAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Off to his bedroom screaming and crying the cat's name all the way there!

I must remind you that the first reaction every parent has when seeing their child in distress is to stop what they are doing and immediately try to make things better....but we can't do that because we are still fighting this puma who has all his claws and is screaming as loud as the seven year-old that just ran out of the room. Honestly it was like trying to wrestle a raccoon and comfort a puppy at the same time.

"ALEX!!! GET BACK IN HERE!! WE ARE JUST GIVING HIM A BATH!! HE'S NOT DROWNING"
"MEOOOOOWWWW. RAAAAAR. REOOOWWWW"
"WHAAAAAAAA!!!! POOR ROCKY! I LOVE HIM!!!"

The bath ends and the moment he touches ground, Rocky takes off like a bottle rocket sliding on the hardwood floors and slamming into every wall and door until he finally found a place to hide for the night....and I mean he stayed there for the entire night and most of the next day until he was 100% sure bath time was over. Aaaahhh the joys of having a pet and a seven year-old mini me.