Somehow the cat just knew.

My latest blog was loosely inspired by one of my friend Clay's recent blog about fear. His blogs are at clayperry.blogspot.com. They're some of the best reading I've found in awhile..you should go there and partake.
Back in my not so distant past, (around high school's end at some point) to be exact, I'd find myself at Stu & Clay's house almost every night. It was at the point where I just walked in..a home away from home,sorta....I always thought of them as adopted cousins. Anyway, one particular evening I was just hanging out with Stu and as usual, we were bored out of our minds. He told me of a (grave) marker some historical society had put up out close to the road to the left of their driveway.Had to do with some soldier who was killed and was from that area, maybe former landowner's son...something like that. At the time, Stu had a cat he simply called "Kitty"....now, Kitty wasn't fond of many people, cuz alot of Stu's friends ,myself included,would come over and mess with it and aggrivate it...nothing serious just us being pains in the butt to the cat. Anyway, the cat will come into play later in the story. Stu asked me if I wanted to go see the marker and being somewhat of a person that appreciates the macabre, I said of course. We all three go outside, Stu, his damn cat and me...we head up to the end of the driveway and he points to it and sure enough, there it is. I was kinda creeped out a little at first, but my curiosity got the better of me. Two things to keep in mind here... 1. It's already dark outside and the Perrys lived at the end of a dead end street. 2.. It's evidently Fall or maybe Winter, cuz ..I remember the leaves on the ground and them being wet...from the rain from either earlier that day or the day before. I stood in front of the marker to try and read it. The light they had by the house, didnt reach out towards the driveway very well ....kinda dimly lit out there. So, seeing as I couldn't read the marker, I went down to my truck to get my flashlight. I came back up to the marker and shined my light on it, then seeing the situation I was in , my mind automatically went to the old classic horror movie scenarios...the cold, nighttime, a grave marker, flashlight, etc.
Now, this is where Kitty comes in....the rotten bastid. As I said, the leaves were wet, I didn't hear him slowly prowling up behind me and getting in his attack cat stance. As I'm reading this marker about this soldier, all of a sudden, in seemingly one motion, Kitty lunges , quietly I might add, and "bear hugs" my right ankle. That's the closest I've ever come to shitting myself. For some reason, I suddenly thought of the scene in "Carrie" , right at the end where she's laying flowers down at the grave, and that hand comes up and grabs her...yeah, somehow that cat just knew.
I threw down my flashlight, I might've hit the cat I dont know, and ran away screaming like a girl. Quickly realizing it was ....."Kitty". I think Stu literally fell over with laughter, he might've seen the whole thing unfold. Then again, he could've orchestrated the whole thing . And so, that night squashed any desire to go into a graveyard at night for any reason. I'm tellin ya....that damn cat just knew.