Many of you have asked what I know about the Legendary Commander of the West Coast Quadrant who lived with the lady many years before my arrival from the mother ship.

I found the following in the lady's journal:

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The Day Mike Tyson Came to Our House...

Back around 1995, a client and friend called and asked me if we could take in a stray cat, "Buddy", that had taken up at her house. She already had three cats and Buddy didn't play nice in the sandbox.

We only had one cat and an older Norwegian Elkhound with heart trouble but decided we would give it a shot.

Flash, the Elkhound, was our office dog and went with us to work everyday. The day the new cat was joining us, we left Flash at home so that "Buddy" could hang out at the office and get used to us.

This was the sweetest cat we had ever had; he had recently been neutered and although was from the streets, he loved people. He was climbing all over us, rubbing us and even sleeping in the middle of my desk for a time. We were thrilled.

We headed home with our new Buddy and let him wander around the house for a few minutes. Flash was at the back door barking her indignation that she had been left home all day and now was being further annoyed by being left out in the yard.

After a suitable amount of time, we opened the back door and Flash came bolting in. When she hit the archway into the living room she stopped dead as she was greeted by the cat from hell.

Buddy had swollen to twice his size - just like in the cartoons and was in full attack mode. We were dumbfounded. My husband looked at me and said, "He's a street fighter. Let's call him Mike Tyson".

For two days, Flash, who weighed 55 pounds, sat in the corner literally quaking in fear of this monster that had invaded her turf. When I was between them, we had a bit of peace but if I left the room, Mike Tyson tried to kill the dog and the dog was powerless to defend herself.

With time, they established detente, which is to say, Flash conceded that Mike Tyson was in charge.

We had two homes at the time and spent half of the week in Palm Springs. Our next door neighbor had two Australian Shepherds named Aron and Priscilla (Presley). Aron and Flash were best friends. Flash wasn't good enough for Prissy...

One day our neighbor was over and she brought the dogs. After a while we noticed how quiet it was - where were the dogs? I went to the front door and discovered Mike Tyson was sitting just out the door, at full attention, looking toward the gate. Backed up against the gate, in a perfect row, were the three dogs.

Attitude is everything.

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I weep at his valor.

Private Spaulding Gray