Hi Shiloh,

My name is Seti Roach, and my adopted parents are Carol and Steven Roach.  I am writing this letter to you because I felt you would understand.  I know you are a dog while I am a cat but you??™re the mascot for Storytime Tapestry. Believe me I will never forgive my so called mother for that because it is her newsletter yet she didn??™t put me as mascot ??“ go figure!  Well I digress!  So let??™s get back to my story. 

I know Steven loves me even when I am bad and I can be bad I have to admit, but my Mom has written all these dog stories lately, there was Sparkey, Tuffy, Bandit, and Putz.  I never met any of these dogs before.  She just goes on and on and on about them.  Frankly I have had it, no offense my dear friend Shiloh, but what does a dog have that a cat doesn??™t have anyhow?  ??“ nothing I say, nothing!  I am a purebred Himalayan male cat and I have descended from the line of kings!  They knew that when they adopted me from the animal shelter.  My original owners called me Tango, but Steven said that was a stupid name.  He knew who I was and he renamed me Seti after Seti I, the overseer to the pharaohs in ancient Egypt. 

Even the day when they found me it was Steven who ran to the cat section of the pound.  My Mother went straight for the dog section.  She still wanted a dog can you imagine that?  I just don??™t believe it.  But thankfully for Steven, who always gets what he wants - sssh Shiloh don??™t let anybody know that I said that, Steven saw me and he saw another purebred Persian cat as well.  He called my mother over and said. ???I just want you to look and he brought her right to my cage.  I sat there all quiet and sweet as I wanted to get out of that place with all those common cats and other animals.  A king should never be treated that way! 

Mommy reluctantly went to my cage because I know she still wanted a dog.  She took one look at me and she said out loud, ???Oh my God???, I knew then that she couldn??™t resist my alluring charm.  She said this is the most beautiful cat I have ever seen in my life.  Look at his long cream-coloured hair and he has red eyes just like the devil???.  Actually my eyes are baby blue but sometimes in some light they do look red. 

I knew she was hooked and I was going home with her that night.  But Steven did throw in a fast one, he said to her, ???I don??™t want you to decide before you look at this other cat??? and then he took her over to see the Persian cat in the cage adjacent to mine.  I stared at that Persian to warn him he was not going to take my place, I am the king!  Mommy said ???yea he is beautiful too but I want the one with the red eyes???.  Steven said ???I like this one better he is a real Persian???.  I got scared it was a stalemate, one wanted me and one wanted the Persian.  This was not going as planned. 

If I knew how to speak human I would have told Steven then and there,??? but I am Persian too. Himalayans were originally bred from a Persian Siamese crossbred. We are officially listed as a type of Persian even though we are a bred on our own.  Don??™t leave me here just because of a technicality.  I fear I won??™t survive another night I got to get out of this place???. 

I could see from the look on Mommy??™s face that she didn??™t know what to do.  But fortunately for me, Steven was smart enough to suggest that they take us both home.  My Mommy??™s only concern with that we were both males and she was afraid that we would fight.  The worker suggested taking us both out of the cage and putting us together in a room to see what would happen.  She didn??™t think there was going to be a problem but Mommy wanted to make sure.  When they took us out I made sure that I was as quiet as could be.  I was not stupid. I was not going to risk my chances of going home. That big grey Persian was not going to win ??“ not over my dead body!   So we played all nicey nicey and we both got to go home!

Steven disappointed me though, he named me Seti, for the overseer to the Pharaohs, but he named the other cat Nimrod, who was supposed to be a real god from the ancient world.  How could he make me second place like that, I just don??™t understand it.  Mommy said she wasn??™t going to call any cat Nimrod she would just call him Rudy for short.  Rudy stuck, they both called him Rudy after that. 

When we got home I showed Rudy a thing or two. I was going to be the ???alpha male??? as Steven keeps saying whatever that means.  Rudy was quiet, gentle, and sweet by nature and for the first three days, he just hid around the house.  I tried my hardest to show my new family that I was indeed the best cat.  It didn??™t work though, because they seemed to love both of us equally.  After awhile, Rudy came out and I made sure that I was where ever he was.  My parents called it stalking and I don??™t know what that means either.  I just was marking my territory and the whole house was my territory.  I admit I bugged Rudy. I used to try to couple with him not because I didn??™t know the difference between a boy or a girl but because I wanted him to know who was the boss!  In those days I had it made.

But then Steven surprised us both.  He brought in a beautiful sexy female, a black African beauty that they called Sheba after the African Queen of Sheba of long ago.  She was a real looker and she was going to be my wife, not Rudy??™s, - if I could help it.  Steven found her on the street in the dead of winter and she was crying for help.  He couldn??™t let her freeze to death so he took her home.  Sheba and I did mate and we had five beautiful kittens all with ???Seti faces??? as my Mommy called it.   I think Rudy was jealous or something because all of a sudden he wasn??™t as fun as he used to be.  He and I had grown to be quite good friends, before Sheba came and all that changed with her arrival. 

One day I guess Rudy had had enough. He just jumped out of the window never to be seen again.  Steven blamed me for it.  He said I chased Rudy away and that I was a nasty cat.  Mommy came to my defense and said I had nothing to do with it.  Rudy was a runner; they knew it when they purchased him from the pound.  He had run away from his last home as well.  They just never thought that he would jump out of a three story window.  Mommy figured that Rudy was nervous with seven other cats in the house.  She had seen his personality change when the kittens arrived.  Shiloh, I really didn??™t have anything to do with it. I wasn??™t even near him when he jumped out the window. I didn??™t have to stalk him as much I had Sheba now.  Steven was very hurt when he lost Rudy and he threatened to get rid of me too.  Mommy would have nothing to do with that and she told him straight ???Seti is not going anywhere. He is my cat!

I was feeling really nervous I didn??™t feel like the King anymore. Steven wouldn??™t bother with me.  But then Steven got over his hurt and realized that I am only a little cat.  I did not have any diabolical plan to get rid of my nemesis.  I did love Rudy and I missed him too when he left. He was my best bud, we came to the house together ??“ we were family. 

Then Steven again came home with another cat this time a big beautiful white cat.  Mommy named her Pearl.  She wasn??™t supposed to be a queen, Sheba was.  But Sheba pulled a Rudy, she was scared of Pearl.  She hid all the time.  Although I felt for Sheba, I enjoyed having a mistress and Pearl also had a litter of Kittens as well.  Mommy and Steven had kept one Kitten, a pure black kitten from Sheba??™s brood that they called Junior, and now they kept one kitten from Pearl??™s brood that they called Rugby. 

We are now five cats in the household.  Mommy said there would be no more cats. She was also fed up with us because we were all fighting with each other.  Pearl always fought with Sheba, and I fought with Junior because he was now one year old and a full grown male.  He was not going to be the king in the house, not if I had any say in the matter.

Mommy and Steven started taking each one of us to the vet, first Sheba left and came back with some kind of operation, and then it was Junior, then Pearl and lastly me.  Mommy says we can??™t produce any more kittens.  She said the vet said that having this done to us would stop Junior and me from fighting as well.  I have to admit I just don??™t have the energy anymore.  He still bugs me but it is not as bad. 

Last night Mommy was on the computer writing crazy emails to Loren Moore and your Mommy Kathy Baker and the room was dark.  She got up fast and stepped on my tail.  I screamed like a banshee and hid under the sofa.  It hurt for a bit but then it was okay, but I am not about to have a repeat performance.  When I see Mommy coming I run.  I think she might be trying to kill me. 

But Shiloh the question I must ask you in all of this, is do you think that I am still the King?

Your friend,

Seti Roach 

Carol Roach is a published writer and newsletter editor.  You can purchase her book: Picking Up The Pieces: A Woman's Journey at www.publishamerica.com, or www.amazon.com.  You can also go to your local bookstore and order it there as well.  If you are interested in other stories feel free to join her newsletter: Storytime Tapestry at: storytime_tapestry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com, or email her directly at winterose@videtron.ca and she will be glad to accomodate you.  Carol enjoys email and responds to every inquiry.