He Was A Gift From Dog
I am not sure how old my cat was when I received him, I do know he was a kitten that fit in the palm of my hand. I never knew who is mother or father was, he was sort of an orphan. You see he was a gift, from the very beginning. He was a gift from my dog.
The story behind the best cat ever begins from behind my shed. I have a Heinz 57 type collie mix, who is getting to be really quite old now. My dog had a penchant for my uncle's chickens, for a time and often showed up in my yard with some of his hens. Usually I would hear a commotion outside and he would have a chicken, but not really be trying to eat it. I would rush out and grab the chicken and scold my dog and then sneak back down to my uncle's farm and let him go.
It was kind of a catch and release type program, so to speak, until my uncle caught on. One time he was caught red handed and my uncle insisted on a disciplinary action that was more bark than bite. Eventually he learned to stop going to my uncles barnyard and misappropriate chickens, but he still liked toting home anything else he could find.
One warm spring day my dog proudly showed up with something that he had found, God only knows where. My first thought was that he had found a small rabbit, except that it looked too dark and very small. He happily and with tail wagging proudly allowed me to inspect what he had, sort of between his paws, which was kind of unusual, because if it had been game of some kind he wouldn't have been so easy going. I picked it up, cupping it in the palm of my hand. It was a half dog slobber-half kitten!
Well, I took him inside and gave him some milk, but he was so tiny that I wasn't sure he would make it. Except for a copious amount of doggy saliva he was completely fine and ate some. He was very small which made it easy for him to hide in places only mice can go. He liked being in small places that made him feel safe, I guess and this would remain true throughout his life.
I remember one time as he was growing up, when he received a visitor. My cat was all black except for white gloves and white lapels. He looked like he was wearing a tuxedo. He also had long hair, but wasn't exactly a long haired cat. Well, coincidentally, my sister noticed how my new cat looked exactly or nearly exactly like one out of a batch of her cat's kittens. My sister lived quite a distance from me, so although they were the same age and same color, they were not related, as far as I know. My cat was a male and my sister's cat was a female, but they were both still very young.
My sister got this idea that she would bring her cat over so that they could play together. I think that my sister was possibly thinking she could find a home for one of her kittens since she had too many at the time. Anyway, you should have seen these two play! I mean they played nonstop for hours and hours and hours. I have never seen anything like it. The new cat had plenty of energy because she was new to the place, so she was extra energetic I think because she was in a new place. My cat played until his tail was literally dragging. It was just a time in his life that I like to remember. They visited for a day or so and then it was time for his little friend to go home.
He liked to nest, my cat did. He would get in baskets or in cupboards or in the blankets around my legs. He had every nook and cranny scoped out in case anyone new drove up or the dogs barked an alert. I don't know why he was nervous, but he sort of got over that. He liked to get in the dryer a lot to my dismay and nest in the freshly washed and dried clothes. He was also proud of the fact that I would find him in such places too it seemed. That was pretty much what he did as he grew up.
One day he didn't come home or was gone most of the day. I thought that since he was of age and it was springtime that perhaps he had found a girlfriend as cats his age and sex normally will do. Later that evening, or very early evening I guess, I found him in my bed, he had managed to get in through my bedroom window, that sometimes I had a box fan in with no screen. He was seriously injured.
He looked to have at the very least a badly broken back leg, but he was purring, glad to be home and safe in my bed or just in a kind shock that animals go into, to deal with pain, I am not sure. I made some quick calls and got him in to a vet. They called me back and said that they could probably fix his leg. Later they called again and said he was full of pellets from a high powered type pellet gun and that they thought he would be okay, but they decided he would be better off if they removed his leg. The way they delivered the news as it got worse and worse, sort of kept me from doing what I think really should have been done, which would have been putting him down.
They took his back leg and removed some pellets, but he pulled through. He was completely shaved except for his neck area, making him look like a lion. He was doped up, but purring when he saw me, although he looked like a three legged stitched up football. Not long after he was out climbing trees and busting stitches to my exasperated alarm, but he was okay. I speculated that he had been caught by some kid and hung up by his leg and was used for target practice, possibly, all day long. Somehow he was able to escape whatever situation he was in and make it back home with a severely broken leg.
He did okay for some months afterward, maybe almost a year, but he was having seizures from time to time that can completely embarrass a cat, if you know what I mean. He had some internal damage that just didnt get corrected right or got worse, I am not sure. One night he wanted outside and it kind of got cold before he got back in and became sick. He died within 24 hours or so. I have never seen or had a cat with so much personality, as he had. I don't want to tell his name because I want to keep that for myself.
