Near Cat-astrophe's

What the hell is up with cats lately? Why are they suddenly challenging our tires with such frequency?

In the past week, I've ridden past two dead felines on the sides of roads. Then, while out riding last night, a kitten comes barreling out from the opposite side of the road, on a straight course for my front tire. My immediate reaction is that it'll realize I'm right there and will stop/turn around. Nope, it actually ADJUSTED it's path and pushed faster, still trying to cross in front of me. I clutched in to slow my speed and opened the throttle up to scare it off - no dice; it kept coming on strong. At this point, I ease onto the brakes a bit, figuring this thing just HAS to realize there's a large, very noisy object directly in it's path and it'll have to stop. No, it keeps coming! It gets to within ONE FOOT of my tire (I'm cutting hard to the right and stomping on the brakes at this point) when it suddenly throws itself to the side, twisting upon itself and pedaling furiously at the pavement to get back to the safety of where it had come out from. I couldn't believe the thing had almost been mowed down by my tire like that.

Then this morning, I'm riding in to work and a grown cat comes flying across a lawn on my right, gets to the edge of the road (just as the vehicle in front of me pulls even with the cat) and the thing pulls up hard, one leg in the air, just poised and ready. I can see that it's scanning the traffic and it just WANTS to go for it. Last night's memories are flying through my head and I'm looking for an exit direction in case this thing decides to go for it. Thankfully, it's pea-brain didn't click into "GO!" mode until just after I passed by. Looking in my side mirror, I saw the streak of gray and white make it safely to the other side - having shot between the two cars behind me and under a bus going the other way. Un-frikkin'-real.

Here's hoping this weekend's road trip doesn't involve any more animules trying to jump under my tires.

Ride Hard...Take Chances (but not if you're a cat, Dammit!)