Meet Alyosha

John says this is an obscene picture, but he does agree that it perfectly captures Alyosha in all his grandur. Meet the cat. This is the cat that went on a killing spree last March while we still lived in Bryan. I believe he took out four sparrow-like birds, two black birds, and a squirrel. He almost had the baby bird, but I rescued it out of his clutches and ran it down to the neighbors yard, to safety. He did this all without front claws.

This is the cat that upon arriving in Trujillo, took on the Baker's 120 lb. Rhodesian Ridgeback leaving so much blood outside that it looked like a slasher movie and Kevin asked if it had "rained berries". No front claws.

This is the cat who while some of the Peru Mission interns were keeping our kids and house during our Guayquil adventure, brought in a live bat to play with and the next week brought us a live bird which he had somehow captured while he was on the roof. Still no front claws. This is the cat who, right after Christmas, left us. The first 3 days we thought he would come home. The 4th day I was sure someone had picked him up and sold him to a pet shop. The 5th day John gave the kids and I permission to openly mourn. The 6th, and 7th days I could not sleep at all. The 8th day, in the mourning I confessed that my cat is an idol for me and I seek comfort in him instead of Jesus and that must be why God had to "take him away". And in the evening on the 8th day he came home, just walked in the door behind John like he had just been on a stroll. This is that cat.

And finally, this is the cat that just Tuesday morning at 6:45am brought in a pigeon half his size into my bedroom, onto my bed. The pigeon didn't want to be in my room, and when it tried to get away, Maggie the dog got involved and so we awake to a cat/dog/bird fight in the corner of our room. The pigeon flew into our bathroom seeking solace and wouldn't come out for about an hour. Which gave us time to clean up the mass of pigeon feathers scattered about the room.

This is that cat.

And people wonder why I love my cat so much.