Elroy Gets a Special Delivery (But Doesn't Seem to Like It...)

Last night, as I was finishing up working out in the basement, I heard Otto yowling in that way that could only mean one thing:  he wanted to go for a ride in the Buddy Stroller.  (He stacks the deck by also sitting in the Buddy Stroller, so the stupid humans will have no problems deciphering his perfectly clear diction on the matter.)  I zipped up the zipper, 4-wheeled it up the stairs, and off we went. 

Sean was at a meeting, but it was just about time for him to return, and since he would be walking back, I thought it might be a nice surprise for Otto to find his Big Buddy outside the house.  So we strolled from the back driveway around to the corner of the yard, then up the small hill to the front yard, Otto announcing his presence to the neighborhood the entire time.  (We would have headed in the direction of Sean's meeting, but Otto was being pretty loud, and the neighbors had built a bonfire.  Didn't seem like a good combo to me.)


So, we rounded the corner to our front walk and I stopped the stroller so Otto could smell our wildflowers.  Only Otto didn't want to smell any wildflowers--he just went right on yowling.  I glanced up and Elroy was perched on the railing of the screen porch, his eyes huge as saucers and his body on high-alert.  He glanced down nervously at this distressing tableau:  me pushing a Buddy Stroller, and a cat that sounded an awful lot like Otto apparently being strangled to death.  Was it a monster in there?  Or was I somehow torturing his favorite Buddy?  Either way, Elroy wanted no part of this.  He jumped off the porch railing abruptly and went running into the house.  


It wasn't the shortest walk in history, but it was close.  


A few minutes later, back in the safety of our house (Otto had been oblivious to Elroy's freak-out), I unzipped the Buddy Stroller to let Otto jump down.  Of course, he didn't want to, so I took him on a lap around the basement, which was really all he wanted in the first place.  I'm guessing Elroy is going to be on extra-high alert for a while though, just in case that monster on wheels comes back.