1) One of my high school buddies, Mike, got a German Shepherd puppy. He named the dog "Shadow". His mom had three cats who wore that puppy out with constant ambush attacks, always chasing, jumping on, and chewing on the pup. Shadow always seemed to have scratches all over his ears and face. When I came home from overseas, Shadow had grown to his full size, and a pretty impressive size it was, too. One day while I was sitting and chatting with Mike and his mom, there came a screaming from the back yard, a scream that raised the hair on my neck. They had a swimming pool in their back yard and the constant fear of pool owners is neighbor kids getting over or through the fence and falling in the pool. So we dashed out to the back yard and found Shadow, with one of the tormenting cats pinned to the patio deck by one of his huge paws. Shadow was calmly and methodically pulling tufts of cat fur out with his teeth. He would pull, spit, pull some more. Shadow had apparently discovered that he was a dog. A large dog. And big dogs don't have to put up with any bullying from pesky cats. He looked quite smug.
2) On my first visit to Mike's house upon returning from overseas, I saw Shadow walking around the back yard and commented on how much he had grown. As I was saying this, Mike's little brother, Scotty (who had also grown a lot) walked by Shadow and wacked the dog on the head with a wiffle-ball bat. Shadow went down hard and awkward and didn't move. I was freaked. I shouted to Mike that Scotty had just killed Shadow. Mike laughed at my alarm and yelled, "Hey, Shadow! Get up!" At which time the dog jumped up and hopped around happily...and I swear he was laughing at me.
3) One of Mike's Mom's cats had kittens. One day as Betty was backing her car out of the garage, She was horrified to see one of her kittens getting pinned by the closing garage door. The little escape artist had gotten out of the pen in the back yard and apparently was making a dash for freedom. Betty jumped out of the car and ran to the kitten's aid. Unfortunately not in time to keep the door from breaking the kitten's back. A rush trip to the vet was a waste of time; the vet said there was nothing to be done.. With care the cat might make it; it was young and sometimes they do make it, or it might not. But there was not really any procedure the vet could do to a cat that young and small. So Betty took the baby cat home, put a heating pad in a cardboard box, covered the pad with a couple layers of towels, and carefully placed the kitty in the box. Forthe next couple weeks she fed the kitten with an eyedropper, cleaned and cared for it constantly. She wasecstatic on the morning she found the kitten moving its back legs. She practically did a jig when the kitten actually sat up and moved around. A short time later the cat was up and walking around and eating on its own. We were all happy for the success.
One day a week or so later, I went over to Mike's house and, noticing Betty in the kitchen, asked how her kitten was doing. She looked at me totally expressionless and left the room without a word. Mike explained, "She found the kitten floating face down in the pool this morning." No good deed goes unpunished.
4) Mike's mom had a canary. The cage floor was removable for cleaning, when cleaning the cage, they would place it on the floor so the bird wouldn't get out. Mike's dad, Lou, bought a Great Dane puppy (who didn't stick around long for many reasons). The puppy was huge and curious. The first time he was there for the cage cleaning, he walked over to the cage on the floor and sniffed the bird. The bird dropped dead. The image of it was hilarious, not for Tweety, but we laughed about it every time it came up. And every time it would come up and we would laugh, Betty would chase us out of the house, smacking and slapping.