Screaming Cat!

Ok, here's the setup.

I'm at my computer, editing a session from earlier in the week. My cat, Nell, continually comes in and out of my studio. She heads over to the window, stands up and looks out, turns and walks away. She keeps doing this for another 5 minutes. Her tail is whipping and she is making a coughing sound. I've never heard this before from her. Her tail is the size of a raccoons' tail. Big and bushy. Strange, I thought (but I'm sure to all you cat pros you know exactly what's going on).

A minute later, Chloe, my daughter's dog, came into the studio. She heads over to the window and stands up and looks out the window. Cute, I thought. So I grab my camera and get it ready just in case they both stand up and look out the window.

After a 10 minute wait, I finally got the shot I was waiting for:

Isn't that cute?!

Then, out of nowhere, Nell starts to act crazy and whines and growls. WTH? My husband asked what's going on. I go to the window and see our neighbor's cat, George, sitting under the window. I've taken care of Georgie in the past when our neighbors go out of town. He's the sweetest cat in the world! A bit overweight from all the love his parents give him (so is Nell!) and has a cute gruffy meow. I love George.

As I was getting ready to reach for Nell to close the window, George jumps up and they both go at it. There's screaming, growling and hissing. My screen is the only thing barely keeping their claws apart. Cats are vicious things! You have some warning with dogs before they decide to fight -- at least they take the time to check each other out before the kill . . .

Ray is able to grab Nell down and I close the window. In the meantime, Chloe thinks Nell is in a playful mood and runs up to her. Nell, still ticked at the thought of another cat remotely near her territory, jumps on Chloe and pinned her to the floor and is digging into her throat with her teeth! OMG! Ray and I try to separate them. That's a tricky feat in itself! I finally grab Chloe and pick her up while Ray grabs Nell, hissing and growling, and places her in her room (the laundry room).

I look for any injuries on Chloe, she's fine. We gave Nell about an hour to 'chill' before we let her out. Of course, she wanted to head back to the window to make sure that cat's not outside her window.

She's sitting there enjoying the breeze. I go over and ask her how she's doing. She meows. I tell her we don't want George outside our window, do we? She hisses and looks outside. I tell her that wasn't a fun thing to do, was it? She growls. Then memos and gives me a kiss.

All is well in Nell's world!