Once more, Phil came to my door bright and early to pick me up for my trip to Connecticut. He
looked quite dapper, and a smile lit his face.
"Zeus, it's hard to believe, but there's only two more trips left, including this one. We sure have come a long way," he said.
I nodded thoughtfully. Only two more trips, and I still felt as if I had more to see. "There's always next year, I suppose. Summer vacation can only last so long," I stated.
From around the corner, my human pet came into the living room. She saw Phil and I chatting, and softly, she said, "Phil, I am sorry for how I have been these past few days. It's just...I miss my Zeus."
Phil walked towards my human pet, placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, and said, "I know, Marina. It's almost over. Just two more trips, and it's done."
"I'm practically jealous too. I mean, here he is - a
cat, and he has gotten to go places I only dream about. It's slightly unnerving."
"You could always apply to be on
The Amazing Race. I know I would cheer you on," Phil told her.
I coughed abruptly. There was only so much human bonding that I was about to put up with, and we needed to go to the airport anyhow. Phil picked me up, said good-bye to the human pet, and off we went to lovely Connecticut.
The flight in was very pleasant, but when I stepped out of the plane, I was even more in love with the weather. It was a cool 75 degrees Fahrenheit (23 degrees Celsius) with the sun shining and a lovely breeze nipping my ears. It was nothing like Houston; in fact, it was downright inviting! You could actually
go outside and not sweat buckets!
When I arrived to
Beau Beau and Angie's house, I discovered they didn't really live under the ski resort. (In terms of distance and direction, they lived
under it.) Their house was very beautiful on the outside, and as I walked up the path, my heart beat faster as my excitement grew.
I knocked on the door, and I didn't have to wait long. A lovely woman answered the door, and behind her, was a younger girl, smiling at me. "Come on in, Zeus! It's a real pleasure to have you here." They opened the door, and I looked at the younger girl again. Suddenly, it hit me: She was the sister of Beau Beau and Angie,
the one who recently graduated. I gave her a headbutt to say congratulations and waited patiently for my friends.
I got toppled over by Beau Beau in short order as he ran towards me from the hall. "Zeus, we've been waitin' the longest fur you to get here! Is it true what dey have been sayin'? The Amazing Zeus is almost ofur?"
I nodded. "It's true. I'm really lucky to be with you all at the moment," I replied.
"I don't tink luck has anyting to do wit it. You could haf always teleported," Beau answered.
Angie came up to greet me next. She looked simply marvelous, all puffed out with her long fur. "Any idea where we're going yet? I want to make sure I look great for when Phil arrives." She started bathing herself, smoothing down the long fur while Beau Beau and I giggled.
Suddenly, the door rang, and of course, my dear audience, you already know who it was. However, if you're just joining us, it was my great friend, Phil Keoghan.
"Beau Beau, Angie, and Zeus. You have $2500.00 for this leg of the race. Here is your first clue. Read over it carefully, and be safe on your travels."
"Holy Toledo! Dat has got to be da most biggest amount dat anyone efur got wif you! We hafta be doin' someting good!" screamed Beau Beau. Excited and anxious to get going, we opened the clue immediately and read together:
Make your way to the gravesite of Midnight Mary. Once there, search for your next clue.
"Oh no! Not Midnight Mary!" screamed Angie. Beau Beau put a comforting paw on Angie's back and whispered, "You can do dis, Angie! It's day time too. Nuffin will happen."
"Is something wrong?" I asked.
"Midnight Mary is what's wrong!" affirmed Angie. "I guess I'll haf to tuff it out dough and hope we come out...
alive!"
Baffled and perplexed, I had no idea what to make out of Angie's words. However, we joined Beau Beau and Angie's human female pets in the car (They had so graciously agreed to help transport us!), and we made our way to New Haven, Connecticut. As we drove along, I asked Angie again, "Please explain what has made you so frightened of Midnight Mary, Angie. I want to know what to expect."
"Midnight Mary was buried alive by her husband! She tried to claw herself out of her casket, but she couldn't do it, and as a result, she died at midnight. She is said to haunt the grounds, and if you're in the cemetery too late, she'll come and get you!"
The story sent chills up my fur! "Good thing we're going in the day then," I said. Beau Beau nodded, stating that he agreed.
We made it to the
Evergreen Cemetery, and as we padded through the grass, looking for the grave, I began to hear a strange rustling noise that seemed to follow us wherever we went. "Do you guys hear that?" I asked, looking around. "Ignore it! We need to find the clue, and get out of here!" said Angie. She was near a panic, and I didn't blame her after hearing the story.
We managed to find the grave, and the three of us played Rock-Paper-Scissors to decide which of us would pick up the clue off of the gravesite. Unfortunately, I lost so I tip-toed over the mound, snatched the clue, and leapt away as fast as I could.
We opened it up and read it together:
Make your way to Rock and Roll Charters. Once there, climb aboard the Sea Wolf for some deep sea fishing. Catch a fish to receive your next clue."Fishing!! Alright!" shouted Beau Beau. "Comin' to dis grave den was well worf it! We gets to eat some fishies now!"
Angie and I both laughed. We made our way back to the parking lot where we joined their human female pets. As we began our drive to North Branford, the older of the two human females said, "You know, you three: Rock and Roll Charters is well-known for shark fishing. Maybe that's what you'll be doing."
Angie's eyes became huge, and Beau Beau looked at me nervously, saying, "What is it wif dis trip, Zeus? Is Phil tryin' to kill us? First, Midnight Mary and now da sharks?!"
I didn't think Phil was trying to kill us, but then again, it was all too odd. "Maybe the producers just want higher ratings," I said.
"Hmph," said Beau Beau. We didn't say much more until we got to the charters. Once there, the three of us jumped out of the car and looked around. The smell of the water and the fresh air certainly had some hand in changing our mind.
Long Island Sound was beautiful, and even the crying of the gulls couldn't ruin it! The boats were lined up and ready to take off towards the Atlantic Ocean for adventure. People milled about, setting ropes, loading supplies, and discussing their plans for the day. Beau Beau, Angie, and I couldn't help but become excited at the thought of our expedition.
Near the end of the dock, we found the
Sea Wolf. We had to pay quite a bit of money for our fishing trip: $1800 for half a day of shark and tuna fishing. The people in charge at the charter asked if we had licenses to fish, and we weren't sure what they meant. We hadn't known felines needed licenses to fish, but once again, those wonderful production assistants took care of everything for us. We made our way out to open waters and to the sharks!
"So what kind of sharks can we expect to see?" I asked the captain of our fine vessel.
"Well, if you're lucky, you'll catch either a
mako or
blue shark. When we get to where the tuna usually are, you just might be able to land yourself a
bluefin or
yellowfin tuna. Just depends on how determined you are, little skipper," said the captain.
"He called you 'little skipper'!" said Angie with a giggle. "How funny is dat?"
"Next he'll be puttin' da cap on you too," said Beau Beau, laughing.
Being out among the waves of the ocean was quite thrilling. Beau Beau and I watched the fish as they swam along the sides of the boat while Angie sunbathed on the deck. Listening to the captain's orders, we prepared bait (Though at this point, I must admit I was slightly creeped out by the captain who stated we should just put one of us on the line since we would make great bait for these fish. We all laughed politely at his so-called joke, but for the life of me, I didn't think he was joking.) for the large, massive fish and threw it overboard (called
chunking) in the hopes we would find ourselves a big catch.
An hour or two went by on the boat with nothing special happening, but then, we got a bite on our line! The struggle was fierce as whatever was under the waves fought with the hook-bait now inside of its mouth! The captain pulled and pulled on the line, leaning back to gain some advantage over the beast. With a loud grunt, he thrust back and then screamed, "When this one gets close to the boat, release the harpoon!" Quickly, the three of us worked together, waited for his signal, and then as his hand went up, we released the harpoon!
Above is a picture of our captain with our catch. As you can see, it is a
GIANT, mouth-watering tuna! We were all so very proud of ourselves, and as our reward, we received our next clue:
Make your way to Foxwoods Resort Casino. Any money you win, you keep."Oh my goodness! Good thing we learned how to play cards from
The Bubbs. Hopefully, we can win our momma lots 'n lots of money!" said Angie.
Beau Beau nodded and added, "He definitely showed us how to keep da poker face. Do you know how to make da poker face, Zeus?"
"What's the poker face?" I asked inquisitively.
"You do this," said Beau Beau, and with that, he made his face go completely blank without any emotion. He just stared at me for the longest time, and it made me laugh.
"That's all there is?" I asked.
"You don't get it," Beau Beau said with a sigh. "It's bery hard. If you don't do it right, you can lose da game sometimes. You'll see. It helps you win da chips."
Back on dry land, the human female pets helped us make our way to Foxwood. They seemed just as excited as we were to go to this lovely resort. When we did arrive, the older of the two females looked back at us and said, "Now listen, you three. You're going to get offered lots of free drinks, but you don't take any of that. It's not the kind of drinks you'll like."
"But if it's free, then why not try it just once to see if we like it?" said Beau Beau.
"Because they don't make Meow-garitas here, Beau Beau. Just trust me on this one," she said.
"Ok den! You're da boss!" said Beau Beau.
We scampered inside, and I was immediately overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of this lively place! My ears perked and twitched with all of the noises:
Ding! Ding! Ding! to my right followed by shouts of, "
Wheel - of - Fortune!" and "
Woo-woo-woo!" as a siren went off somewhere. All around, red, yellow, orange, blue, and green lights blazed and were blinking rapidly, and the smell of smoke mixed with heavy perfume lingered in the air.
"I'm gonna play some roulette. I'll see you both later!" said Angie. She padded off in the direction of what we could only assume were the roulette tables, only to leave Beau Beau and I curious. "You want to follow her?"I asked him. He nodded, and with that, we followed her path.
By the time we got to the roulette table, though, we found Angie was in the center of attention:
"Isn't she just adorable?" said one woman.
"What is she laying on? Is that 11 black? Put my money underneath that cat," said another lady.
"She better not be messin' with my chips," said a husband to his wife. "You never know, though, Chad," she replied. "She could bring you luck!"
I looked at Beau Beau and said, "Maybe we should find something to do on our own anyhow. You know, just us guys."
"Definitely. Let's go look at the slots," said Beau Beau.
"Slots? Why would we want to look at slots? Is there something in the slots?" I asked curiously.
"Yeah: MONEY!" yelled Beau Beau with a grin. "C'mon!" I followed him to the line of slot machines, and I understood now where all of the noises were coming from when we entered. They were the loudest, most intriguing machines I had ever seen. So much hooplah, and for some of the machines, it only cost one penny to play. Both Beau Beau and I leapt onto the padded chairs in front of two machines and began to play.
"Dis is so much fun! I love tryin' to get three cherries," said Beau Beau, "or three oranges, three lemons, or even three dollar signs. Three of anyting would be awesome!"
"Why does it have to be three of anything?" I felt so out of my element with this. "Because," explained Beau Beau, "that's how you get da money!"
I pressed the button that had PLAY printed on it, and sure enough, there was a loud noise erupted from the machine, lights flashed on and off, and it all frightened me to death that I leapt off of the seat onto the floor. "Holy smokes, Zeus! You won a thousand clams!" screamed Beau Beau with delight.
I looked all along the floor for the clams, but I didn't see anything but some gold coins. "C'mon, Zeus! You gotta pick 'em all up and take 'em to da cashier. Our mom is gonna be so happy we won her some clams!" Little by little, we picked up all of the coins and placed them in an empty plastic bucket someone had left near us. We took the bucket to the cashier, and sure enough, the lady behind the counter gave us money for it. I was shocked. With the cash in paw, we collected Angie from her adoring fans at the roulette wheel and made our way to the parking lot to locate their human female pets.
When the human female pets received the money from Beau Beau, they cheered and gave us a ton of scritchins. "Wow! This is unbelievable!" said the younger one. "Definitely! Thanks a lot, Zeus, for coming to visit us! If you want to come back again sometime and win another one thousand dollars for us, you're more than welcome!"
I would like to say thank you to Beau Beau, Angie, their human female sister, and their older human female pet. It was a pleasure coming to visit you and the wonderful state of Connecticut. I hope sometime you come to Houston to visit me, but do come in the winter when it is nice and warm here!
This is my Aunt Diana. I have no idea what is on her tongue, but the fact that she wants to show it off is more than a bit unnerving. 
we're inside!" I said.
