In honour of International Cat Day, I would like to talk about the cats I had throughout my life.
First is Speckles. She was a tortie who had a text book case of tortitude. Speckles only wanted attention when she asked for it. I recall her being a great hunter and helped keep the rodent population in check. One night, while I was having a bath, I hear a commotion. Turns out Speckles had caught a mouse from the basement and brought it upstairs to share. Another thing I remember is she ran away for a couple weeks when we took in a pregnant cat. We thought she ran away to die, but nope! She just wasn’t happy about the situation. Speckles died at the tender age of nineteen years old. She was slowly getting worse, then got better. One morning, she didn’t wake up.
Zippy was a pregnant tuxedo cat we found in our garage. Mom and Dad decided to let her stay with us until her babies were old enough to be away from her. Also so my brothers and I could experience newborn kittens. It was made very clear to us that we weren’t keeping Zippy. You know where this is going, right? Zippy liked cleaning my brother’s hair and eating Cheetos.
Zippy was a great, but brutal hunter! More than once, I was woken up by the sounds of a small rodent squealing because Zippy had stuck her claws into her hind quarters. The most evil thing she did was put a baby robin in the middle of the yard and hide under the deck to wait for mama.
Shadow came along after Speckles died. She was an all black cat we got from a friend’s farm. I don’t think she stayed with us long because she was problematic right from the start. Shadow figured out how to open the windows and escaped. She returned pregnant once. After she had her babies, she got worse.
Mocha came from dad’s cousin. She was a Siamese cat who had issues including being vicious around food. One night, Mocha stole a piece of pizza off my plate. It happened so fast and the pizza was bigger than her! Dad grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and she wrapped herself around the pizza and growled. Mocha died at five years old due to a brain tumour.
When I moved into a house with a roommate, Gypsy came into the picture. She was also from my dad’s cousin. I remember seeing a fluffy calico kitten trying to sit so nice. I picked her up and she fell asleep in my arms. From that moment, she was mine. I had to surrender her when I moved into Melville Housing. She still crosses my mind every now and then.
I don’t have any cats anymore, but I get to volunteer in the cat room at Excalipurr Cat Cafe nearly every weekend.
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