Full disclosure, I wrote this on a different day, but 11/11 is such a cool day. It was at least around this day when these things happened. I could have just said nothing about my rearranging of time, but I like to keep these Thoughts from Life interactive. If I’m fully disclosing everything, I should also point out that this paragraph is being written in 2026. The one thing I will not disclose is that this article is being written by artificial intelligence. It’s not but I would tell you if it were. The following paragraphs are from about 11/11/26. Enjoy the trip back in time.
Patti and I welcomed Archie, our outside cat, into our hearts, but not necessarily into our home. Our four existing cats make welcoming him into our house difficult. The other day, Archie was putting his unique stamp on our lives. Patti called me outside to see what Archie was doing. I had a tough time finding him, but when I did, I took out my phone to film the action. He was doing what cats do — playing with a mouse. Unlike the indoor cats, he was playing with a real mouse. He went between chasing it and holding it in his mouth. The mouse was extremely small. It may have been a child mouse. This may have influenced Patti’s reaction to what was happening.
Patti’s first reaction to Archie’s game was that he was cruel to the mouse. I reminded her that Archie was just doing what cats do with mice. We didn’t think he would eat it, but we didn’t know what Archie was capable of. He kept putting it on the ground and it would run away. Chasing after it, he caught up with the mouse and put his paw on it. The game was when he would lift a paw and let it get away again. He seemed more distracted by us watching him. I’m sure in his mind this was the thing that would finally get him into our house. He was showing off.
Eventually, the mouse ran under a ladder in the yard. Archie watched for it to come out for a while, but soon got bored. I went to work the next day and showed everyone Archie’s mousing capabilities. Forwarding to the part of the video where he had the mouse in his mouth, I declared he was our “mouser.” It seemed unique to see a cat acting like a cat. Our past cats never seemed to know what to do with mice. Our current cats have never seen a real mouse. They’ve seen plenty of flying and crawling bugs. Luckily, they never put them in their mouths.
The next day, Patti mentioned that Archie bit her on the arm hard enough to draw blood. She had to put a large band-aid on it. Archie has a history of biting at us, but it has never been hard. Most of the time he misses biting us. I don’t know if he was still wound up from the previous day’s mouse catch, but it wasn’t normal for him to bite so hard. The bite was more like what Scout does occasionally. I always say that Scout comes from the mean streets. You can never forget that when you’re petting her. Archie, still being on the mean streets, is the same. No matter how long they are around people, they never stop being cats.
Skip to a few days later and Patti woke up at 5:30 in the morning feeling horrible with a large red mark on her arm. It was the same arm that Archie had bitten. She went to the doctor and found out she had an infection. There is no doubt that the infection came from Archie’s bite after chewing on the mouse. I told the people at work about this recent development. They all agreed it wasn’t just coincidence. The infection basically came from the mouse. Archie was merely the carrier — pun completely intended.
This incident only confirms my fears about Patti and her health. Whenever she points out some new scratch or bruise on her body, I want her to promise me she will start exercising or at least keep physically active. Her ability to heal is slow. She can have the same scar for weeks, if not months. With her retirement, I want her to see staying healthy as one of her jobs. When I bring it up, she changes the subject or asserts how much physical activity she does. She will probably read this and dismiss everything I say, but I’m hoping a little of it sinks in.
Thoughts from Life 
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