In order to keep reasonable order to the cat stories I’ll begin with each one and move on. I know people who love cats will read about them so this is just for you. And to the ones who find themselves here by mistake, as Curtis used to say, “Useless matter that doesn’t really matter.” Speaking of Curtis, I still can’t come to the realization that he and Ellen are both gone. They were without a doubt two of the best!!

Cali is first. She was hungry, lost and afraid. We urged her to eat by leaving the food and walking away. Strays aren’t too picky….they are won over with food and after checking you out as the food giver. In no time she was eating on the deck and lounging around. As I mentioned, we named her Cali, obviously lacking anything original. In no time she grew into a quiet, well mannered kitty with graceful movements.

There isn’t any cat anywhere that can climb a tree as fast as Calie. Our neighbor’s had a cat and she was not going to relinquish any of her territory. She made Cali’s life pretty miserable one summer. Cali could go up any tree in the neighborhood with amazing speed and believe me, she had lots of practice. I’ve never seen another cat climb as high as Cali, either. That summer she was in the oak a lot.

Actually, Cali’s life took a dramatic change when we acquired Chevy. She had been our only outside cat and was used to having the garage to herself at night. We didn’t know how she would react to the kitten so Rocky had a large cage for him and we thought that would be safe enough until she could get used to him. Before he was out of the cage, we acquired yet another cat. She was probably around 6 months and we put her in with the kitten. The cage was about 5ft X 5ft with different levels and the kitten was a huge “show-off”……..anytime we went to the garage he would break his neck to get us over to the cage. Strangely the older cat didn’t give him any trouble and they were soon attached to one another.

Long story short, the time came when we figured Cali was going to have to get used to them out of the cage. After a couple of days they hadn’t killed one another so we left the door open to see if they’d run off or what. Poor Cali was beside herself. To our surprise she turned into an instant mother and was doing everything she could to get them back in the garage. From then on, Cali became their mother and their trainer for all things cats need to know.

She is happy to follow me anywhere. Any of my outside chores will find her close by and I am the only one she trusts to come back down out of a tree…….but that is a story for another day.

(To be continued.)

Essentially Esther