Her given name is Bagera (after the black jaguar from Disney’s The Jungle Book). Shortly after Gerald and I moved to a farm house in the country our vet told us he had a kitten he was trying to find a home for and wondered if we would be interested. I wasn’t too keen on the idea but Gerald thought it would be great to have a friend for our eldest cat, Simon. Seems this kitten’s mother was a stray who lived in the back of an abandoned pick-up where she had her kittens. When this pick-up was towed to town Bugsy had no choice but to go along for the ride.
Gerald and I picked her up on a Wednesday afternoon and she alternated hissing and yowling at us the entire way home from town. As soon as I put her in the house to introduce her to Simon, she arched her back and hissing, started hopping sideways. Simon just looked at her - he was such a mellow guy and so accepting of everyone. I put them together in our bedroom, thinking that would force help them get to know one another. It must have worked because they became inseparable. Everywhere Bugsy went, Simon followed and likewise, everywhere Simon went, Bugsy followed.
After 11 years she still hisses but has ceased the hopping sideways while doing it!
Bob is my kitty. Not
that the others aren’t mine or that I don’t love the others but there is just
something special about Bob. He sort of
attached himself to me and I have become his human.
A long time ago I lived with a man, his wife, and their son.
I was left outside most of the time and didn't really like it. One day the man
told me that he was going to give me away because he and his wife were going to
have another baby and didn't want to bother with me any more. I didn't quite
understand; I was a good boy. I talked a lot and tried to be really friendly,
even with their little dog. I never scratched the boy even when he pulled my
tail. I didn't know what I had done wrong. The next day the man loaded me up in
his car and drove me to his work. He left me in the car for awhile - it was
November and I was cold but soon he took me to another house, put me on their
porch, and left. I was all by myself and kind of scared but didn't want to act
like it so I decided to look around and see what I could find. There was this
big white garbage bag and the stuff in it smelled so good to me - I was hungry.
I chewed a hole in the bottom and pulled all the good smelling stuff out. I had
so much fun eating all the neat things and playing with the stuff I didn't want
to eat!
Even though I was having fun I was still a little scared - I
had been on the porch for a long time and nobody was coming to see me. I
started to get sad but then I heard another little kitty on the other side of
the big wood door. She talked to me and sounded like she would be so much fun
to play with, if only I could meet her! She told me to wait for awhile longer
and then her mommy and daddy would be home. Maybe then we could play together.
As it started to get dark I wondered if she really knew what she was talking
about but then I saw lights and heard a man and a woman talking. I wasn't
familiar with their voices so I wanted to make my best impression. I sat up
really straight and tall in the middle of all the things I pulled from the
white bag and waited for them to see me. The woman opened the porch door and
seemed really happy to see me. She scooped me up and told me what a handsome
boy I was! The man didn't sound very happy. I heard him tell the woman that she
needed to do something with me and that I didn't need to stay there. She
promised him that she would clean up the "mess" I made and then she
would do something with me. She walked into the house and sat me down on the
floor so I could finally meet the kitty I had been talking to all day! She was
such a nice kitty! She and I began playing and I was so happy.
That night I laid on the lady's lap while she talked to the
man. She told him that she needed me to stay (I was surprised because really I
was the one who needed her to let me stay) and that she would take care of me.
The man wasn't too happy but he said it was her decision, she knew how he felt
about a fourth cat. She told him that I needed a name and she wanted him to
name me. Without really giving it much thought he said, "Bob." She
seemed to like that so she told me they would call me Bob and I would be able
to live in their house with them, the really nice kitty, and the two other
kitties that didn't really seem to want to get to know me.
The next day she took me to a strange building and I was
worried that I was going to be left alone again. But she didn't leave me! She
stayed with me even though she let some strange man, the "vet," poke
me with sharp things and do a test for something called leukemia. He said the
test was negative and I saw my new mom smile so I think that was a good thing.
A couple of weeks later the nice kitty who was my best friend had the same test
done but it came back positive. My mommy was very sad. She said that maybe the
retest would be negative but a few weeks later it wasn't. Mommy cried a lot but
the nice kitty, Tigger, and I talked. We decided that she wouldn't get sick for
a long time and maybe that would make mommy happy. Tigger stayed with us for a couple
more years and mommy was very happy. Then one night Tigger told me her sad
news. She said that it was hard for her to breathe and she thought that she had
stayed around long enough. She said that mommy used to watch a movie called,
Fried Green Tomatos. Tigger remembered that in one part Ruth went to sleep and
Idgie was sad. But the housekeeper told her that a lady always knew when it was
time to go and Ms. Ruth was a lady. So Tigger told me she was a lady and it was
her time to go. I didn't care if she was a lady or not, I didn't want her to
go, I loved her. The next day Mommy took her to the doctor. When mommy came
home she was very sad. She cried and cried and I didn't know what to do. I
tried to be a good boy but I was sad too. Mommy told me that Tigger had been
very sick and she didn't wake up when she went to sleep.
I still miss Tigger
and Mommy does too. I can still see her even though I don't think mommy can
because sometimes when we're playing mommy will ask me what I'm doing by
myself. I'm not by myself but I guess she doesn't know that! That's how I got
my mommy and daddy and am very happy now. Mommy lets me sleep on her pillow at
night and I never get in trouble, of course, I never do anything bad!
Feebe is just Feebe. She has no formal name and no middle name – she is simply Feebe. As Gerald has explained it, Feebe is a diva, and divas stand alone. This was not intentional as we did not try to further her idea that she was a princess but nothing has stopped her from acting the part. Given her humble beginning, I suppose she is entitled to some degree.
In the fall of 2002, as I was driving home from work one evening, later than usual, I spotted a small calico kitty in the middle of the road. The two cars in front of me swerved around it, however, I stopped. I got out of the car, and did the whole, “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty,” thing. I fully expected it to run away as soon as it heard my voice but she did quite the opposite. She ran, full speed, over to me and put her paws up on my knee, purring and meowing the whole time. I didn’t really know what to do but I did the most logical thing I could think of: picked up the kitty and got back into my car.
I slowly drove the rest of the way home; all the while this happy little cat was running around my car, jumping on me, the dash, the steering wheel, etc. When I pulled up, Gerald walked out to the car to meet me and froze in his tracks as he saw this kitty laying on the dash of my car. He just shook his head as if to say, “Here we go again!”
We took her into the bathroom as to not expose the other cats to her in case she had something they could catch and get sick from. We sat in there and talked for about 30 minutes, trying to figure out what in the heck we were going to do! Finally it was decided that she was too fat and friendly to be a total stray – she had to have an actual home. So we drove down to where I found her and I canvassed the houses – knocking on doors and asking everyone that was home if they were missing a little calico kitty. No one was. We drove the rest of the way into town and happened to see someone still at the vet’s office. I guess we asked nice enough because they allowed her to stay over the weekend but the condition was I had to pick her up on Monday.
First thing Monday morning I called the animal shelter to see if anyone was looking for their cat. No one was. I called the newspaper and put a ‘found’ ad out, thinking I would get a call. I didn’t. Reluctantly I called the vet’s office and asked them to test her for feline leukemia, give her a check-up, and vaccinate her. If I had to take her home she had to have a clean bill of health. That afternoon I picked her up and we went home. I thought we had a new kitty.
Friday evening as we were eating dinner, the phone rang. It was an old guy who said he saw our ad and thought that it might be his son’s cat. (His son lived about ½ mile from where I found her, on the other side of a creek.) He added that his son probably wouldn’t care if I wanted to keep it but if I was going to, “throw it out the window,” I could drop it off at his house – it was a barn cat after all. He gave me his son’s phone number and told me I should call him the next day. I was crushed. In just 5 short days I had gotten attached to this little kitty. I liked her and best of all, Gerald liked her. That night I sat in the living room in the dark with the little kitty and cried. I didn’t want to give her back but I didn’t want to say I wanted her as we already had three others at the time.
The next day, as I was scooping litter boxes, Gerald came into the room and said, “If you want to keep her, we can keep her.” I did and we did.
