Thomas

When we lived in that horrid farmhouse, my oldest brother, Dan, left his pregnant siamese cat with us. She had her babies and we kept one. We named him Thomas. He was a beautiful lilac point siamese.
One afternoon my dad was home for lunch from building the house. We had eaten, Daddy was reading the newspaper, Mom was cleaning off the top of the refrigerator and I had my arms full of clean clothes to take up to my room. (See, I was so traumatized I remember exactly where the main players in this little drama were.)
Mom heard Thomas at the door wanting to get in. She got off her chair and opened the door. In trotted Thomas with his prize firmly held in his mouth - until Mom screamed. Daddy dropped the paper and I came back to the kitchen to see what had happened. Mom was climbing back up on her chair. "Snake! Thomas brought a snake into the house!", she screamed. Well that startled poor Thomas enough that he dropped the snake. The snake took off as fast as it could slither, probably thinking that it had entered snake hell.
I took off for the stairway that had a door that would shut - except in my panic I dropped a pair of socks that stopped the door from closing. I actually had to reach to the floor (The snake was on the floor - somewhere.) and pick up the socks. I did and slammed the door shut.
From here I have to repeat what I was told because I had hi-tailed it up the stairs to my bedroom with another shut door between me and the evil serpent.
Daddy tried to get the snake, but it headed for cover - under the couch. Daddy made Mom come down from the top of the refrigerator to hold up one end of the couch so he could get the snake. What a woman! She did it. However, Thomas wasn't about to let anyone have his prize. Mom had to put the couch down and toss Thomas out of the house so they had a clear shot at the slimy creature. Up went the couch again and this time Daddy got a hold of the snake. It was just a garden snake, but in my eyes it was a cobra or boa constrictor or at least a rattle snake.
From that day on the door was not automatically opened at Thomas cry. He had to be checked out before he came in.