Cat Views

Fritz was a big black and white angora tom cat who lived with us on the farm when I was a child. He was supposed to be a barn cat, but his superior attitude and deference to my mother earned him a place in the house. Still…he was a “tom” and would often spend nights out sowing his “wild oats”. One rainy summer night he was yowling at the back door to be let in. He came in, but not alone. He brought a guest, a small undernourished female, wet and bedraggled. I grabbed a towel and dried her off discovering that she was pregnant! Naturally, we had to adopt her! I took over the care of “Missy” and tried to make her comfortable in a box in my room. She preferred to be in my toy box among my doll clothes. Mom bought her a beautiful knitted cat bed, I placed a doll blanket in it and she happily curled up in the cat bed. Missy accepted the cat bed just in time as 3 days later she gave birth to 4 beautiful kittens, one black and three black and white just like Fritz.

Our family loved to camp and we always went as a family unit (including our two adored cats).  Other friends and their families joined us at the campsite bringing along their pets as well. One weekend we were forced to use an “overflow” camping area where there were no regular campsites. After dinner, we discovered our oldest cat was missing. He had slipped his collar and disappeared.  We were frantic! Our house cat was loose in the woods and it was dark! After several hours of calling and searching we all sat down around the dying campfire totally worn out and depressed. One of the girls glanced up and said, “mom, dad, I know where he is”. We immediately came out of our lethargic state with renewed energy ready to resume the hunt. We didn’t have far to go! Alex, the cat, was sitting under the car watching us the entire time. The next trip, the cats will have their own Kat Kabin to sleep in!