Loie soon found that Bucky's cake contained the infamous bottle of Sangria! Audra the Archfiend, the plotter without conscience, had stooped so low as to corrupt Bucky's lovely party into an excuse for getting Loie to take back the infamous Sangria Bottle of Horror. Audra was howling with fiendish glee. "Everybody else would slice the cake right down the middle, but not Bucky. He slices one end! We had to wait an hour for it to show up. Didn't you get suspicious when I said Jim was coming and bringing a cake?" Jim has been involved in several of the transfers of the Sangria Curse.
"Oh, right," said Loie. "As if I'm going to remember a bottle of sangria I last saw five years ago." All the guests were laughing and congratulating Audra on the success of her audacious plan. Bucky just shook his head and said, "I even carried it into the house." The party broke up in the late afternoon, and the Lovebunnies' guests left saying that they would be back in a few weeks, meaning, for the Annual Anniversary Party. Bucky was consoled for his inadvertant involvment with the Sangria Terror Wine by the birthday present Sister Amy and Nephew Siggy sent: packets of seeds and a magnificent Surf Blaster water gun. When he called to thank them, Amy told him that Siggy had picked out both presents. At first he wanted to send a plant, but Amy persuaded him to choose some seeds instead. Then, Siggy was upset at having to send off the Blaster he had so carefully picked out. Amy told him, "We're going to send this to Uncle Bucky and it is going to make us happy."
It was not long after the Olive Oil testing that a stranger began to make his move at Lake Drive. Several times over the winter, and increasingly often as spring slowly arrived, an orange tabby cat had been sighted around the Lovebunnies' yard. On Thursday May 10th, Loie wrote…
Gunther the Fierce chased our orange visitor twice today. When I get up in the morning, Mr. G wants treats. Ten or fifteen minutes later, he usually wants to go out, or at least, to look out.
This morning, after treats, he was talking to me and I assumed he wanted his morning walkabout. As I started toward the front door, he stopped at the landing (his watching spot) and peered left, around the corner into the playroom. I looked too, but didn't see anything. I started down the srairs; so did Gunther. I looked further into the playroom and now that I could see the back doors, I noticed that the lefthand screen door was open.
I took a few more steps and saw the orange cat. It was outside, lying on the deck, with its back along the sill of the righthand door, and its tail draped over the sill of the open lefthand door and in the playroom!
I called to the cat and it jumped up and started into the playroom, then stopped as it saw Gunther. Just as Mr. G leapt into action, Orange cat scrambled a one eighty and bolted. Gunther shot through the door and under the maple. Orange Cat sat down out in the yard, then took off down the driveway.
When I got home after work, B and I went out to tend herbs. Gunther came outside too. Orange Cat came walking up from the direction of the glade. He seemed to be planning on joining the party. He saw Gunther first. When Gunther saw him, Orange Cat flattened and put his ears back. Gunther approached from an angle. Orange Cat began to moan. Mr. G inched closer. Suddenly, Orange Cat bolted across the yard and down the left finger cove. Gunther strutted back toward us: Fierce Cat!
As many of you know, Orange Cat turned out to be a lover cat, and managed to ingratiate himself into the Lovebunny household. His name is now Tictoc: short for The Orange Cat In Whose Light-colored Fur Ticks Are Easily Visible. Gunther has come to a grudging acceptance of Tictoc's presence, and sometimes even allows him to sleep on the Cat's Bed with Gunther and his slaves: the Big Cats. Bucky is not wild about this development, as Tictoc tends to rise rather earlier than Bucky, and wants to play in the early morning. Tictoc enjoys playing with Bucky's knee or toes. This does not endear him to Bucky, but it amuses Loie.
While Tictoc was easing himself into the house, the Lovebunnies were preparing for their Tenth Anniversary Party. The only hitch was that the band they wanted to have play was busy. John at KCLinger's recommended another band, but after messing around with its leader for a month, the Lovebunnies found that band couldn't play for their party! Mark Peeling said he might be able to help. He spoke to Diedra from the coffee house and she said she could bring some music.
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