This happened a few years ago, but at dinner tonight we reminisced about it and I decided that I needed to share this with everyone. About two years ago, Mack and I decided it would be a good idea to use one of those extra large exercise balls at our computer desk rather than using a computer chair. We had it in place for a few months and it looked like the computer chair was going to have to find itself a new home. The best part about the ball was when I was doing work, I could bounce up and down in a sitting motion on it and work out my thighs. I thought it was the greatest combination and even Mack seemed to like it.
A couple of months after we got the exercise ball, Mack was sitting at the computer looking something up on the computer. I was sitting on a file cabinet box behind him and we were discussing whatever it was that we were looking at. Out of nowhere, our cat Carmine Falcone, came running around from hallway, into the room, and up onto the computer desk. During this acrobatic feat, he launched himself off of the exercise ball that Mack was occupying. This may not have been a problem if not for the fact that Falcone was not declawed and when he propelled himself from the ball to the desk, he used his claws for maximum pounce.
The sound of a lot of air rushing out of a little hole filled the room. Mack turned to me with a cartoon character shocked look on his face. His eyes were the size of saucers and his chin was hanging on the floor. In order to try and stop the air from leaking out of the ball and consequently landing himself on the floor, Mack tried to place his hand into the puncture hole that Falcone’s claws made. This was probably the worst thing that he could have done. Upon placing his finger onto the rubber there was an earsplitting rip that sounded more like a sonic boom. The entire ball exploded in a gush of air that blew all of the papers off of our desk and onto the floor. At the same time, Mack was removed from the sitting position that he had been in at the beginning of this chain of events and he was now lying flat on his back with his legs sticking up in the air. His face displayed a look of complete and utter shock. It was almost as though he could not process what had happened to him that had resulted with him ending up on the floor with little bits of rubber in his hair and surrounding the scene of the crime.
I too was lying on the floor, but not because the cat had decimated my chair. I was on the floor beside Mack because my body could not hold itself upright when it was shaking with uncontrollable laughter the way that it was. I was laughing so hard that I was barely making any sound. I wasn’t even able to breathe because my lungs were only able to work in a way that expelled air, not take any in. I was in no condition to move other than in an up and down chest motion much less ask whether or not Mack was okay. I do not know what happened to the cat in all of this, but I do know that he jumped at least 2 feet straight up into the air when the ball exploded. Or maybe that was Mack. It was all so fast that I cannot be sure which one did what, but I do know that the end result was Mack with a bruised backside and me making a mad dash to the potty.
