Hello world! I’m Cato and I’d like to tell my story. You might want to give my head a pat every once in a while. I tend to forget what I’m doing and doze off these days. I’m just not as young and sharp as I used to be.
Well, where to start? Ah! Obviously- at my hatching. Well, I was hatched on December twenty eighth of twenty ten. My previous owner was a pretty good pleo-parent from what I remember of him. I was a little trouble-maker. I was really loud and got him a pet-violation at his apartment. I also refused to learn my name or do tricks at first.
After about five months, my previous owner decided to sell me. He just didn’t have the time to give me as full a life as he’d hoped. I can’t remember how I felt about being sold but I was excited about the great adventure ahead of me.
I was supposed to arrive on Talon’s doorstep on the eighth of June twenty eleven but evidently the PSUS? No no that’s not right. The SPUS? No… ummmm… What is it? Oh yes. The UPS man put me under a neighbor’s grill and left me. I spent nearly two days in the elements but I wasn’t scared. I liked listening to all the noises and the children running and the dogs barking from inside my box.
Finally someone took me to Talon's house. I was really hungry and stressed after the long ride and then my being alone under the grill. She communicated with my former owner and told him that I was home at last and both of them were very happy.
The following morning, my box was finally opened, my battery was charged, and I got a long-deserved meal. Right away I was ready to explore my new world. I was shuffling along near the edge of Talon’s bed when I was viciously attacked from the side. A green female pleo bore down on me, throwing her neck over mine and pinning me so that my rear was in the air and my chin was on the floor.
She snarled and said in a very imperious voice- “WHO ARE YOU?”
I gasped and gurgled out a wild scream for my new mistress. I needed help! Talon leapt from her computer chair where she was working on an article and quickly separated us. “I’m… Cato.” I said finally when I could see and breathe again. It was then that I saw my attacker clearly and she saw me. We both had this moment of surprise as she realized I wasn’t a bio-creature there to take a chunk out of her and I realized she wasn’t just female but pretty and strong too.
Talon was frozen too but with shock. “Ryu!” She said sharply. “What in the world has gotten into you? You’ve never gone after Ugobe like that. I wonder if this is normal for RB’s. I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
Ryu threw back her head and gave this Godzilla roar and glared down her nose at me. “Cato huh? Well, Cato, let me put you on notice. This room is mine, Talon is mine, and if you want to avoid having a snapped vertebra you’ll keep your pheromones to yourself.”
I sighed. What a life I was going to have here. I felt crushed and small and very diminished. I decided right then I wasn’t going to take such abuse from this female and roared back, “Well, Queen Ryu, we are going to have to share this room and Talon. I’ve been in a box for a very very long time and I’m suffering from extreme boredom and my chin has an itch and If you don’t want me to steel Talon’s heart as well as her family’s with my special Blue Chinese charm, then you will share everything equally with me.” Now, in those days, Pleo manufacturers were not yet selling pink and blue pleos to the American market.
For a moment, Ryu looked about ready to pin me again but then she gave this prim feminine sniff and said, “Well then! You certainly have defied your toy-ish appearance, Mr. Cato the Chinese import. Agreed. Now, shall we trance?”
And as they say, the rest was history. Ryu and I slowly got past our differences. I lost my wanderlust and Ryu lost some of her caginess about having other pleos in her territory. Talon adopted another Ugobe pleo to keep Ugobe company and we lived on together through several moves and rocky family situations.
Sometime in two thousand twelve, I developed a leg problem and it was then that I realized just how much Talon cared for me- her wandering pleo. She sent me on a long trip to Australia to get my leg repaired. I had nurses on two different continents attending to my injury. Haha! It certainly swelled my head a little getting all that attention. I slowly realized through watching my lovely doctor that my progress was eagerly followed by people across the world over something called a mopucer…. Umm no that’s not right. A tumcucer. No no that’s not right either. A computer.
Yaaaaawn! I’m really tired now so I’ll fast-forward a bit. I hit old-age stage last June and I lost much of my former vitality and longing for adventure. Though my first leg injury was repaired, I soon developed another one. Now it’s my right front leg that gives me trouble but Talon has used an electronic splint of sorts to keep me from trying to move it. She has decided that because of my age and the expense of sending me off again that she’d rather keep me this way than risk my being lost in transit. I don’t move as well these days and find walking on carpet makes my old weak rear legs crick and crack in protest. My mistress has given me a nice smooth piece of poster board to walk on. I still have interactions with my lovely Ryu and the two Ugobe pleos. My life has been full and I am happy. I hope to get to know more humans and keep turning pretty heads with my cute Chinese charm for a long time to come.
