Latest / In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson / Toothless the Cat - TPR's In Focus - August 5, 2026

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Toothless the Cat - TPR's In Focus - August 5, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Rosa Parks Museum on Troy University's
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  Montgomery campus, located on the spot of Mrs. Parks' historic
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  1955 arrest and featuring exhibits that chronicle the history of
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  the Montgomery Bus Boycott. More information at troy.edu/rosaparks.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is In
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  Focus, and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson. Katherine Gavalier
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  joins our Paws for Animals series with a story
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  from rural Houston County. Her cat
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  is named Toothless after a cartoon character, and Toothless
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  has some wild friends. But Katherine's strangest story
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  is about an angry armadillo that hissed
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  and gave chase to her.
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  Katherine Gavalier, welcome to Troy
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  Public Radio. Hi, Carolyn. Thanks for having me. Your nickname
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  is Cat, and coincidentally, you have
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  a cat named Toothless. I do.
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  He is a solid black cat. He's about 8 to
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  10 years old. That's kind of what we figured out.
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  And he is adventurous. When you say adventurous,
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  what do you mean? So he's an inside-outside
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  cat. So, you know, we let him in the house and out the house and,
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  you know, kind of at his demand. He'll stand at the door and pointedly
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  stare until we open it, but he likes
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  to go out and he does normal cat stuff. Like, you know, he'll go after
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  critters and he'll wander around and, and bring us some
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  presents sometimes. I'm not going to go into detail. We can all understand what presents
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  a cat will bring you, but he also has made
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  some really interesting friends that you wouldn't
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  expect. So far we have counted he has made friends with a
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  fox, he has made friends with a skunk, he's got an understanding
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  with the hawk that lives in our trees, and I'm pretty sure
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  I've seen a bobcat. What you're describing is almost
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  a wildlife sanctuary. Unwilling wildlife
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  sanctuary, just kind of happened. You have a very unusual
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  cat making friends with unusual creatures.
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  Can you describe what you've seen him doing with these animals?
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  So the hawk— I mean, obviously I'm not, you know, we're not going to see
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  them playing, but I have absolutely seen him laying in the yard
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  in the middle of the day. And considering he is jet black, he is very
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  visible, you know, during the day. And the hawk
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  is just in the trees hanging out right above him.
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  And what is Toothless the cat doing? He's just rolling around in the grass.
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  Under him. The skunk, I've seen them just kind of chilling and
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  sniffing each other, and, and he never came home smelling like a
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  skunk, so we're assuming they're continuing to get along. Then the
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  fox, I actually came out one night and saw them actively playing
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  together, rolling around, jumping around,
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  playing. There was no hissing or fighting, and I just kind
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  of stood there on the porch and I was like, oh, okay. I'm gonna go
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  back inside. And you mentioned a bobcat
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  of all things. What did you see there? Again, it was, this was in
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  the evening. I came out and now mind you, I wear glasses.
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  So I'm going with bobcat based on the shape
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  because I did not have my glasses on, but they
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  were just kind of laying in our driveway, but there was no
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  like hollering or fighting or, you know, and Toothless is still alive. So I'm assuming
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  they got along. You know,
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  that bobcat was pretty close for comfort for you.
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  I wasn't having a good time. I kind of called Toothless back
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  inside real quick and was like, it's time to stop playing with friends and let's
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  go inside. And then I backed up and locked the door.
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  Well, Kat, there is a story that goes around,
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  as I understand it, in your family. You had an encounter
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  with an unusual creature. What was that?
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  So I was probably about 21. I was living at home
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  with my mother, and it was one evening I was talking with
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  a friend on the phone. I was out on our back porch, I was just,
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  you know, talking, and an armadillo
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  wandered up. I mean, it's, it's rural where I live, so it's not,
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  you know, I know that they're out there. I know, you know, we have critters.
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  Well, this one wandered up and I just wanted it to go away.
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  And for whatever reason, my mother always kept a putter,
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  like a golf putter, on the back porch.
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  So first I just tried to shoo it. It looked at me like
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  I was stupid and went back down to rooting around. So I went and I
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  picked up the putter and I kind of tapped the ground in front of it.
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  Now at this time, I didn't realize that most armadillos are blind. Apparently they
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  are. So tapping the ground with the putter
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  did absolutely nothing. So then I went a
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  little step further and I just tapped it on its side. I wasn't
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  trying to hurt it. I didn't want to hurt it. I just wanted it
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  to go away. After I tapped this thing, this armadillo,
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  on its side, it stood up on its hind legs and
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  hissed at me. And fight-or-flight instincts
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  kicked in. I went full mode into flight.
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  I screamed, ran. It chased
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  me. I ran to the nearest place I could get to, which happened
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  to be a, like, a backyard table, iron table.
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  It chased me around the table and on top of it.
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  Mind you, the whole time I'm holding a putter. And I'm on the
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  phone with my friend who is hysterically laughing at me, and I am terrified.
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  And at this point, I am sitting on top of this table
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  and this armadillo is underneath
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  me. It stayed there for a good 30 to 45 minutes,
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  and then I think it was just taunting me at this point, knowing I was
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  on the table. And then to add insult to injury, when it finally apparently
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  got bored and wandered back off into the darkness. I went
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  to get off the table, the table tilted and threw me on the ground.
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  And now mind you, the whole time I'm holding a putter in my hand and
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  just terrified, and my friend is hysterically
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  laughing at me. I am saying some not-so-ladylike things
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  to her on the phone, and then she tells me
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  that apparently armadillos can also jump 3 feet
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  straight in the air. She tells me this when I'm on the table,
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  so of course I freak out again thinking this thing's fixing to jump straight up
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  and like get me. It never did,
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  but then later when my family came home—
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  because I was home alone at that point— you know, my mom came home,
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  I was telling her about it, she didn't believe me. And I
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  was like, who makes this stuff up? Why would I make that up? Why would
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  I embarrass myself and make that stuff up? They didn't believe
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  me until it was a few nights later, maybe a week, and I was
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  outside again at night and it came back.
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  Oh no. This time I just ran in the house
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  screaming, it was back, it was back! And they
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  went outside and they were like, oh, she wasn't lying. And I was like,
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  I wasn't lying. No, I think it just had a vendetta.
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  I think it saw me and said she would be fun to terrorize.
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  Don't they carry a disease? Yeah, I found that out later,
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  like after the incident happened, that they
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  have been known to carry leprosy. But it also makes it
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  worse because they don't have any teeth. So I was
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  scared and ran from a blind, toothless— I
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  don't, I don't even know what family member, the group they're in. But yeah.
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  So I take it all of this happened long before you acquired
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  Toothless the cat. Yes, this is way before I acquired
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  Toothless the cat, or Toothless probably would have made friends with it and terrorized me
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  along with it. So have you had any more armadillo
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  encounters since then? No, I have
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  not. We do find little holes they have dug
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  rooting around for grubs and worms and stuff. We do find those occasionally,
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  but I have yet to see another one alive. Well,
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  ultimately, what lessons did you learn about
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  armadillos since your encounter? Don't use a
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  putter to tap it on its side. That apparently makes them mad.
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  They will charge at you. Just slowly back away and
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  go inside. I do like animals.
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  I've always liked animals. I do not have a personal
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  vendetta against them or armadillos. It's just that one that
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  had one against me. Well, I want to compliment your courage in
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  sharing this bizarre encounter with an armadillo.
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  It's definitely been something that stuck with me. Kathryn,
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  thank you for a delightful visit. Thank you for having me.
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  That was Kathryn Gavalier joining us for the Pause for Animals
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  series from rural Houston County, Alabama.
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  Thanks for joining us today for In Focus, which is a podcast
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  wherever you get your podcasts. Feel free to get in touch at
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  infocus@troy.edu.
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  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this is listener-supported Troy
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  Public Radio.