This is a story about my cat that has three names. On April 20, 2015, my neighbor, "Suzi" and I were sitting on the back porch talking. We live in a duplex and share the back porch. All of a sudden, we saw a cat walking down the driveway and when he spotted us, he stopped and starred. Suzi talked to him and coaxed him over to us. She went inside and got a bowl of water and a bowl of food, and you know what happened; he never left. He was a fat cat and very affectionate which told us that he was not a feral stray.
I searched the internet, newspaper, and our local shelter to see if anyone was looking for their missing cat, but found nothing. I checked with the local vet, animal hospital, and looked for signs posted on poles, and still nothing. How could it be that nobody was looking for this adorable, affectionate cat? Since both of us already had one cat each living with us, we kept this guy outside because we didn't know if he was carrying any diseases. Suzi had a big chair on her side of the porch, and covered it with blankets. That is where he lived for three weeks. He had the opportunity to leave, but the furthest he went was to walk around the back yard.
For being a short-hair, he sure did shed a lot. His hair flew with his every move. I love cats but when they shed, it drives me crazy. He let me brush and comb him, which he enjoyed very much. It took two days to remove all of his loose hair. I would bet that this was the first grooming this cat had ever had in his entire life. When I was finished, the bag full of his hair was enough to make another cat. He even looked like he lost five pounds.
Suzi and I looked after him every day and night; playing with him, feeding him, and loving him. He was definitely a lap cat; taking turns on our laps with every chance he got. The nights were still chilly but he knew how to keep warm and dry by laying on top of my car tire, under the wheel well.
Suzi and I decided to share him, just as he had decided to share us. As I stated before, we live in a duplex. We share the same driveway and back porch, so why not share this cat too. We also agreed to share the food and vet expenses. Three weeks later and with no one claiming him, Suzi and I took him to the vet. He received a good bill of health except for a couple of bad teeth that would eventually have to be extracted. He was already neutered so we didn't have to worry about that. And, he needed to lose weight as well. Apparently, his bad teeth didn't keep him from eating since he weighed in at eighteen pounds. No problem; I would put him on a diet. The vet gave him an approximate age of seven.
He was given a series of vaccines to protect him and to protect our cats that were already living with us. He certainly didn't like the trip to the vet; do you know of any cat that does? You would have thought that after the vet trip, he would have wasted no time to leave. But once again, he stayed put with us.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Image Source: 100% own work.