My Cat Is a Dependable Basketball Companion

More reliable than my friends, wife, or son

The Los Angeles Clippers have gone 28–7 since the start of December with James Harden as a pass-first point guard and emerged as a serious contender for the franchise’s first NBA crown.

And my cat and I have been loving it.

Clover sits beside me on the living room sofa, nibbling on the human snack for the game as Harden facilitates the offense for the Clippers.

Crunching on a Frito-Lay potato chip. Munching on a chocolate chip cookie. Gnawing on a slice of cheddar cheese.

Since last Monday night was a big game for the Clippers, I thought it deserved something more than just a bag of potato chips and spinach dip.

A victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves would move the Clippers into first place in the Western Conference, so I was thinking pizza.

My teenage son loves pizza so he was going to watch some of the game before heading back to his bedroom to become Mario in a video game.

He devoured a medium pepperoni pan pizza in the first five minutes as our feline friend took tiny bites from a two-inch slice I cut off for her.

I made a mental note that she likes pizza and barely noticed when she leaped off my lap in the first half as the Clippers took a 53–49 lead.

But when I went to the restroom at halftime I noticed the poop in her litter box looked a lot less solid and more like a pile of brown slime.

Uh-oh, I thought. Diarrhea.

Someone interviewed 2,000 pet owners and 83% claimed their pet has a favorite sport they like to watch. Football finished in first place, followed by soccer, basketball, and baseball.

Golf rounded out the top five sports pets like to watch. Not surprisingly, pets find bowling as boring as humans since it finished in last place.

I used to watch Los Angeles Lakers games with a friend during the Showtime Era in the 1980s with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar battling the Boston Celtics for the NBA crown.

We both worked at a pizza place with a small bar, and I can still see him standing on a chair and wiping a Celtics pennant on his ass to the approval of the jam-packed room of Laker fans.

We stopped watching the Lakers when I moved away to college. Then, after I graduated and returned home, he got a job in a different city.

I coaxed my wife to watch some Lakers games with me. She seemed to become a fan when she leaped up and screamed after Robert Horry hit a shot at the buzzer to win a playoff game.

The Lakers won three consecutive NBA titles with Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant (2000–2002), but when Shaq was traded to the Miami Heat, we canceled our cable to watch less TV.

I watched Lakers’ games again with another friend when Pau Gasol teamed with Kobe for the Lakers championships in 2009 and 2010.

However, that friend also got a new job in another city, and I had no other friends who watched basketball.

My wife signed up our son for a basketball class for kids on the autism spectrum when he was 7, and she suggested we get cable TV so my son and I could watch Clippers games together.

I was skeptical since he’s never liked sports. But in the first game we watched, he yelled, “Hey, there’s Chris Paul!” as the then-Clippers guard caught the opening tip from DeAndre Jordan.

He recognized him because his two teachers started class every week showing laminated photos of some of the top players in the NBA.

Lebron James Kevin Durant James Harden

“Hey, where’s Blake Griffin?” he asked me.

“I heard he punched an equipment assistant at a restaurant,” I said. “He was suspended by the team for four games and can’t play in this game.”

I was excited we were talking sports.

“Why did he punch him?” he asked.

“I think the equipment guy was teasing him,” I said. “He and a teammate would tease the guy, and he didn’t like when he got teased back.”

Five minutes into the game, though, he lost interest in the action on the court but perked up every time the commercials came back on.

“The Western Bacon Cheeseburger at Carl’s Jr. is now only $2.49,” he repeated several times with a perfect Texas twang. “Oh shit, just $2.49!”

He also loved a Frasier promotional commercial where the psychiatrist shakes his younger brother Miles’ shoulders and yells, “You stole my mommy!”

“They’re psychiatrists and supposed to help others,” I said. “It looks like they need help.”

We reenacted the commercial each time it came back on, and my son was still cackling when the Clippers game returned on the TV.

I discovered my most dependable basketball companion during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A calico cat I saw outside my window often as I taught my students on Zoom in my bedroom.

I started feeding my neighbor’s two cats. It was something to do. They had been indoor cats but became outdoor cats after my neighbor’s wife died and his new girlfriend was allergic to cats.

I felt sorry for Clover and her brother Scotty, an orange tabby and the Alpha male on our street.

“Why are you feeding the cats?” my wife asked.

When I didn’t answer, she supplied a theory.

“Are you trying to lure them to our side of the street?” she asked, guessing my intention.

The cats followed the food and love, and they became our fur friends during the pandemic.

Clover was soon sitting beside me on the sofa while the Clippers blew a 3-1 series lead to the Denver Nuggets with a chance to advance to the Western Conference Finals in 2020.

It was deja vu when the Clippers blew a 3–1 lead to the Houston Rockets in 2015, and petting Clover helped stop me from firing the remote at the TV, soothing the pain from the loss.

Maybe, it’s a bit odd for a 55-year-old man to be watching sports with a cat, but I don’t think I’m the only person who watches sports with their cat or dog snuggled up beside them on the sofa.

I’m an introvert, and my cat and I both have a Kawhi Leonard temperament watching games.

We don’t get too high or too low as a game ebbs and flows, remaining even-keeled like Leonard, the Clippers’ top player with a stoic personality.

Now I just have to remember that she is lactose intolerant and to not give her any pizza or ice cream that might give her a case of the squirts.

In case I need her for comfort as I did when the Clippers got whipped 40–19 in the third quarter and blown out by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Hopefully, they don’t blow another 3–1 lead in the playoffs, but if that happens Clover will be by my side to offer emotional support for me.

Thanks for reading my story.