Back in December of 2022 a feral cat family moved into our garage during a terrible storm. I posted about it here. @the-bitcoin-dood/storm-is-really-bad-but The garage door wouldn't close all the way, and the cats figured it was a much better location to live in rather than staying under my neighbors porch. I brought them some food and blankets and they never left.
The small cat colony consisted of 3 cats. Over time they all became very close with our family. We named them KitKat, Shadow, and Snoopy.
Shadow and Snoopy. Shadow is the gray cat and he never let anyone near him unless there was food. 😆 Every so often he would let me pet him while he ate.
Snoopy was the black and white cat, it took me about a year for him to get close with me. Eventually, we became really close friends. As a matter of fact, I've never connected with a cat the way we seemed to connect with each other.
This little lady we named KitKat. Her and Snoopy were close to inseperable. Actually, I used to refer to the three of them as the "three amigos". Where there was one, the other two probably weren't far behind.
The first year we started caring for them, they would come to the door whenever they got hungry.
Over the next couple years, the cats all lived in the garage together. They made a nice home. There as an old couch for them, some old blankets, and always a bowl of food for them.
KitKat was the first one to warm up to us. Eventually, she would spend a lot of time in the house. She was basically my mothers cat. She would lie on the couch next to her and watch tv. or sit by her feet while she played on the computer.
She was very loveable, and seemed to get along with all the kids in the neighborhood. She didn't seem to trust many adults. We have a park around the corner and I heard she would show up at the park often to play with the kids.
She was the first of the cats to stop coming around. I just figured she met a nice family at the park that took her home. She was so loving. My mother was heart broken though. She really grew attached to her. Surprisingly, my mother is NOT a cat person. But she couldn't resist her.
I don't know how to explain it, but there was something absolutely magickal about these cats. I named Shadow, because he would just sort of appear out of a dark corner while you were working in the garage. Suddenly you'd see this gray shadow move across the floor. It actually startled me a couple times. It was like he would just appear.
KitKat would hide in the bushes. The one day I was staring right at her while talking to the mailman and didn't even realize it. Her eyes must have been closed because as soon as she opened them her big golden eyes were staring at me from behind the leaves. I wish I could have snapped a photo of it. It was pretty wild how she just appeared in there.
Snoopy, not only seemed like he understood what you were saying to him. He would actually answer back, and I'm not just talking a simple meow, it would be like a conversation, "meow, meooow, meeow, mee owww, meeow". Then he'd stop, you'd say something else, and he'd answer again vocalizing several different meow's. It was really strange to be honest with you.
KitKat also seemed like she understood. You'd tell her not to do something once, like, "Don't claw the furniture" and she never did it again. "Get down" and she'd jump right down from wherever she was. Oh yeah, and she liked to climb trees too. Really high. It would scare the hell out of me.
KitKat and Shadow Disappear
So after about a year and a half. KitKat was the first to disappear. Like I said earlier, I just assumed she found a good home. She was very loving and sociable for a feral. But it's probably because the whole neighborhood was feeding her, and all the kids loved her. A few weeks back, I seen a missing poster of her in the local grocery store. It had to be her. Same eyes with that little white spot by her neck. I know that's common with black cats, but it was just a feeling.
A few months after KitKat stopped coming around, Shadow developed a really bad limp. I tried repeatedly to get near him to see what the issue was, but he just wasn't having it. Over the next several weeks, you could just see that he wasn't OK. Eventually he just stopped coming around. I assume he passed away due to his condition.
That left Snoopy.
Poor Snoopy Was Left Alone.
I'm pretty sure KitKat was Snoopy's mate. They were always together and shortly after she disappeared, he came in the house for the first time and actually looked for her. He would never come in the house, no matter how many times he was invited in. But on this occasion, he marched right in and walked all around the house sniffing every spot where she had been while talking away, "meow meow meeeeow meeow meow" Easily translated to, "Where is my girlfriend?" After looking everywhere he returned to the door and climbed up the screen trying to get out.
This was before we could pick him up or anything. I gently lifted him off the screen and set him back outside where he continued sniffing the ground and all around the driveway. It was actually heartbreaking.
It was only about a month after that, that Shadow developed the limp and stopped coming around. Snoopy was left all alone.
I was worried maybe someone in the neighborhood was hurting the cats. So I called animal control to see if they had gotten any complaints and they said, it was more than likely coyotes. Apparently they've been coming into the city and our neighborhood had a lot of them right now. We have a trainyard nearby and they walk along the train tracks and come into the neighborhoods when they get hungry.
As I said earlier, there was always a bowl of food in the garage for them. With the three cats living together they were able to protect their territory. With Snoopy all alone, he could no longer defend the garage. Eventually it was overtaken by other cats and a skunk. The Dood had to fix the garage door, and on top of that, Snoopy was getting hurt from being in fights trying to defend his space.
Just before the cold weather came I started feeding him in the entranceway to the house, and once he got comfortable with the entranceway, I made a little cat apartment for him in the basement. This seemed to remedy the situation. He had a safe place to sleep and eat again. This was his home for the next two years.
At this point, I could hold him, and he actually became extremely affectionate with me. He grew on the entire house. He would often hang out in my parents apartment. He would curl up on the couch and watch TV with me. It got to the point where he would sleep in the basement at night, then have run of the house throughout the day. He found a spot in the living room picture window where he would just hang out all day.
I wanted badly to make him a house cat, but he wasn't having it. He got sick once, with a really bad abscess on his face. Again, from a fight. I had to take him to the vet to get it fixed. It saved his life, and I'm pretty sure he knew it because he was super affectionate after that. However, keeping him in the house for almost a month proved difficult. As soon as his Elizabethan collar came off, he sat by the door and cried and cried until we let him out. He made it perfectly clear he did not want to be a housecat.
This is Buddy my house cat. I've had him since 2010. He's getting old and frail now :( He never goes outside and loves it in the house. He actually runs away from the outside door.
Cat Ghosts and Dream Omens
Here's where the story gets a little weird. Of course it has to get weird, it's The Dood's blog. How can we have a story without ghosts, magick, aliens, or crypto?
As I mentioned earlier, I seen a missing poster of KitKat. It was just a hunch but it felt good to see the picture. I was positive it was her, and it meant that she did find a good home for a bit. That was just about a month ago.
A few weeks after I seen the missing poster I was sitting in the living room watching TV. Buddy my housecat was sitting in a window perch that I made for him. Somthing drew my attention to the window. I glanced over real quick then looked away. Then looked back again. For a brief moment it looked like KitKat sitting on the edge of the window perch super imposed over Buddy. Those big golden eyes staring at me. I snapped my head back and she was gone. It was like her ghost checking in on me. At that moment, I assumed KitKat was no longer with us. The missing poster probably was her, and she probably got herself in some kind of trouble.
I can't stress enough how close these 3 cats were. When they first started coming around, and we started feeding them. If one got to the dish before the others, they would stop eating and wait for the others to show up, then after all three of them had their fill, the first one would finish the plate. They actually shared their meals. At first, I thought I was imagining it, but it happened several times. They really looked out for each other.
Anyway my point is, Snoopy hasn't been around for about a week now. As much I tried to keep him in the house, he always wanted outside. He was constantly coming home with scratches and bites from getting in fights. Still, he always showed up for dinner. If he didn't come home at night, he'd be waiting at the door in the morning for breakfast. He had a home, and he knew it. After the second night of not being home, I had a dream that he was hurt in a fight. In the dream he was hiding under a wooden front porch and as I reach for him I see how badly he's hurt and I jump out of bed reaching for him. At this point, I know what it means. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure he's no longer with us :(
Then on top of that, my mother said the other night the dog walked into the kitchen as she was making a late night snack and Snoopy was following behind her. The cat even got along with our dog and they would follow each other around all the time. She smiled thinking Snoopy returned and somebody had let her in the house. When she turned around to pet her and welcome her home, the cat disappeared before her eyes and the dog stood there staring where the cat was.
The Timing Is Weird
I have to think Snoopy and KitKat are together again. I think it's really serendipitous that I seen the "ghost" of KitKat a week before Snoopy disappeared. Maybe they were fated to be together in this life and the next. I don't know.
I will say this. I'm absolutely heart broken. I've never been so attached to a cat in my life. Each morning, Snoopy would come up from the basement and I'd pick him up and he'd literally give me a hug while digging his claws into the back of my neck. I'd have my morning cup of coffee while he ate his breakfast. Even my parents were amazed at the bond we had. Another neighbor that feeds him from time to time couldn't believe how he was with me either. He'd been feeding Snoopy on and off for several years and still couldn't get close to him. I'll miss all 3 of them. But I'll miss Snoopy the most.
I hope it wasn't a prophetic dream, and I hope Snoopy shows up at the door one day. Maybe my pagan ways are rubbing off on my mother or maybe it's an overactive imagination with a little bit of wishful thinking on her part. I don't know. Every time I pass the outside door though, I have to look out to see if he's sitting on the stoop waiting to be let in. Each day, I check out the window a little less. I just don't want to believe he's gone. I have to think that if he is, he's hanging out with KitKat and Shadow in cat Valhalla.
What do you think? Do our perished pets visit us after they're gone? Maybe check in on us from time to time. I remember after my cat Mandy died, I kept hearing her for several weeks after she was gone. My mother did too. Anyway, I hope they are together and happy in cat heaven or Valhalla or wherever cats go when they pass.