My Cats

 

My Cat Tales.

Never really was a cat person but got into the game in 1974 (aged 13)  I was given a black and white kitten who I named Ulysses.  We went on our summer holidays and kitty was put under the house, to be fed and watered by our good neighbour.  When we got back, two weeks later, Ulysses was gone, never to be seen again.

In 1976 I was on Canterbury and part of my duties was to look after the Seacat who I called Pussy.  Left Canterbury behind to serve the Drog Navy.

My next cat was when I started dating my wife and she had a black tabby.  Sadly one day she didn’t return home and I went on a search and found her 50 metres down the road under a tree. Signs of being run over.  I can’t remember her name.

In 1988 we got another cat, Thomas who was also a black tabby. Sadly he too suffered an untimely death, run over outside our house in Bayswater.

Common thread, yes? Well not really.

In the late 90’s we had two daughters and gave them a kitten each.  Oldest girl had Tiger Lily and youngest girl Chole.  Both lived very long and happy lives.

In 2003 I was living in Foxton.  My neighbour was an elderly gentleman who smoked two packs of ciggy’s a day.  He had a grey cat he called Smokey (go figure). One day he asked me if I can look after Smokey as he was moving back to Palmerston North, and they didn’t allow cats where he was going.  I said sure.

Smokey settled in nicely and after a few weeks was happy to climb in my bed and settle in behind my knees.  Sometimes he would wrap himself around my head on my pillow.  One day I was petting his sides and felt what seemed like three stitches on her left side and a quick trip to the vet proved indeed three old stitches. I loved that cat.

In 2004 we shifted to Palmy and once again he settled well.  My nephews took to him. In 2005 we parted company as I ended up in hospital twice and no car.  When I did get a car I went back to our old digs. All her life Smokey was a lean mean hunting machine, but the grey cat out front was a grey bubble.

RIP Muffin and Bubbles.