“Beck Moi Tchew!” You crack me up! I always knew that would come back to haunt me. After all it was just one time that it happened. I can count. It is not a problem at all. The issue is not in my counting, and I am not an idiot. All this started one night when I happened upon a witch’s hut. Of course I did not know she was a witch at the time. As I said, I happened upon the hut and came up to the front door. There on the doorstep was a scattered pile of coins that had to have fallen from the witch’s purse. I must have some kind of obsessive compulsive thing going as if there is something that it out of place I need to straighten them. So, that’s what I was trying to do. Pick them up and put them in a pile. I struggled to count more than twelve because I can not hold more than that many coins with my claws. They are just too long. You see they slip right through. I get to twelve and then I run out of room in my hands. The claws can not pick up or carry any more.
As I tried to pick them up, I had gotten to twelve and they slipped out of my hands. It made a great noise and must have alerted the person inside. While I was trying to work faster I heard the rustle of the occupant. I was made. I tried to run but somehow tripped over my own feet and crashed into the ground kissing the cobblestone path. The door flew open and out she came with broom in hand. This is when I came to the conclusion that I had happened across the wrong hut. This was not going to be good. She was a witch all right, as she was chanting and incanting some sort of witchy spell. Sparks were coming out of her broom and some sort of vile smell was being emitted from a vial in her other hand. She threw the vial at me and missed by only inches. It went flying past me and broke on the ground just a few feet from me. The contents turned into a great neon green cloud. The smell was terrible and the reek permeated into everything, including me. I was starting to get woozy...tired...feeling sick. That is when the lightning came out of nowhere and hit me on the melon. Ooo weee, it was smarts! See this. (He lifted his hat and revealed a white stripe from the middle of his forehead to the back of his head.) That’s why I wear a hat so that I do not look like a damned skunk. I ran as fast as I could, into the woods deeper and deeper. I ran until the potion took over and I fell to the ground and was out. When I awoke, I was exactly where I had fallen asleep. The witch never bothered to follow. It was years later that I found out why. When she came out onto the cobblestone path and stepped on the coins I had piled there. She must have slipped on the coins, fell, and then hit her head on the stairs. She died right there. That is why to this day witches do not like me at all. Simply it is best to just stay out of their way. After all, witches be crazy!
