Amazing Cat Tales by Max Diamond - HTML preview

Cat Tales 50

Generally speaking, folks line up in either one camp or the other. They have certain, definite prefere nces when it comes to pets. Usually, they are either in the dog -lovers camp or the cat-lovers camp.

Through the years, as my husband and I raised four children, we gave them the opportuni ty to expe rience the responsibility of helping care for our pe ts.

While the kids were young, the pe ts were more ours, than theirs, that is, until our son, Patrick, and his sister, Sara, determined to get their own dog. They had in mind a dachshund puppy, but it would cost the m $50. So they went to work. The two of the m washed cars, sold lemonade, babysat, and did various odd jobs to come up with the money. That feisty little dog followed the m around and was their companion and the n ours for nine teen years.

But this is not a story about dogs; this is really a tale about cats. We never had a cat as a pet while Sara and Patrick were growing up. Later, I acquire d a wonderf ul Maine coon cat we called Smudge. I say “acquired” because that is how you get a cat. It’s generally not inte ntional; they just kind of show up, and you adopt or you don’ t. Once I got to know Smudge, the re was no question that I wante d him to stay. He seemed to have some of the easygoing character of our black lab, Coal. They became fond companions, often sleeping curled up togethe r on Coal’s comfy, old bed.

By then, Patrick and Sara both lived in othe r places, occasionally coming home for special holidays to see their two younger brothers and us. Sara had developed some allergies, and right at the top of he r list was cats, so she avoided the cats when she was in our home. Once, whe n she was sleeping in an upstairs room, she heard what she described as a loud growling noise. Smudge was coming by to see her. He always purre d very loudly. Sara was put off by the noise. After that, in defere nce to her and her husband’s allergies, I kept our two cats in the garage during their visits. Later, two of her four childre n also showed tendencies to sneeze when around cats, and one, Daniel, developed asthma-like symptoms. So, although I enjoyed a longtime friendship of twenty years with Smudge, otherwise known as “the king of my heart”, he was never a compani on to our daughter’s family. In fact, she often referenced cats in a negative way, talking about how she had seen them kill birds or, while living in Omaha, how cats would come by and use their children’s sandbox as a litter box, annoying creatures that they we re.

In the year that my husband and I packed up and moved f rom Colorado to Texas, to live closer to a son and his family and to our daughter and he r family, we experienced some sad losses. Our cat Samantha, who had bee n with us fifteen years, developed a mass betwee n her shoulde r blades, which turned out to be cancer in the form of a rapidly growing sarcoma. I had to make the tough decision to have her euthanized.

Like many cats, Sam had been pretty much of a one-person companion and neve r really warme d to othe rs in the family, nor they to her. Seve ral months later, when Smudge began to slow down, withdraw, and eventually stop eating, we were very concerned. He had been a wonde rful companion since our lab, Coal, had passed away. I rushed Smudge to a weekend clinic, only to learn, several hundre d dollars later, that he had cancer of the liver. We lost this faithful old friend just before Thanksgiving. My kids all knew that I really missed this amazing cat.

Meanwhile, down near Houston where our da ughter lives, on Thanksgiving her family heard some faint little “mew” sounds coming from the other side of a high fence that surrounds their backyard. The neighbors, whose yard the sounds were coming from, were out of town. Whe n the sounds persisted, our grandchildre n’s curiosity got the best of them, and they discovered that a feral cat had delivered a litter of kittens under an old pile of wood that was next to the fence.

Later that week the re was a heavy downpour. When Sara and the kids venture d out to check on the kitte ns, they saw momma cat depositing them one by one out in the front driveway in the rain. The re had been six kittens, but one drowned in that old woodpile. Sara and the kids moved the other five kitties into a shed on the neighbor’s property. The shed had space under the door so momma cat could come and go. But momma cat move d the m again, to another ya rd whe re a big dog lived. Sara and the kids found and rescued the m after looking high and low. This time they took matte rs into their own hands and decided to take care of them the mselves. They placed the kittens, two black ones and three gray tabbies, in a box in their garage. They bought baby formula and began feeding the kittens.

Sara went online and learned that it is important to handle fera l cats while they are young in order to train the m to be friendly, to domesticate them. So the children handled the m, even bringing them into the house, much to the chagrin of their two dogs.

One black kitten had white paws and a white bib, so they named her Tuxe do, and the othe r they called Panther. Si nce the kittens woul d be ready to go to ne w homes just after Christmas, they gave two of them Christmas names, Mistletoe and Holly. Our grandson Daniel’s favorite Winnie the Pooh character is Tigger, so that name was given to the only male in the litter, a short-haired, striped tabby.

Just after Christmas Sara and John and the kids drove up to Austin to spend the weekend wi th us. I heard the car arrive in the drive followed by doors slamming and excited laughter as the kids tumbled through the open door and deposited two darling kittens into my arms. “Merry Christmas, Nana!” they shouted. Even more heartwarming to me than the gift of two ne w cats to keep us company was the change I saw in our daughte r’s famil y. They had laid aside their previous disdain for cats and risked allergic reactions to rescue and take care of these kittens. They placed all in welcoming homes, especially blessing us! Incidentally, our last name is Wood, so we have Tigger Wood and Holly Wood. Both are delightful, full of all the antics and curiosity that are endearing about cats, and as celebrated as their namesakes.