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Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Charley Marmalade

Meet Charley, our outside cat.

Janet at Writing in the Blackberry Patch posted a photo of a kitten on her blog about two months ago. The kitty was apparently a stray that took up residence on her porch. Janet had cats; she didn't need another. So this one was headed to the animal shelter when I read Janet's blog.

"Hold up!" I wrote. "I'll take it!"

We had had a cat recently, a feral cat found by my daughter-in-law. She brought it to our house and over time he became somewhat friendly, although we never once got close enough to pet him. We liked him very much, though--he had beautiful eyes. But on Easter he disappeared, and Larry found his body in the woods a few weeks later. We still don't know what happened to him, but where we live there are many wild critters---coyotes, feral dogs, raccoons, foxes---that could easily overcome a cat. It's one of the dangers of living in the country.

So you can see that we picked up Janet's stray with a little trepidation. It would be hard to get attached to another cat and have something happen to it. But at least it would have a chance; the local animal shelter is pretty much a free ride out of life.

Janet's stray was almost feral. We didn't see it for two weeks, and then it only came out at night when we were at the firepit. Eventually it let us pet it. We didn't know if it was a boy or girl because we never got close enough to know. We named it Charley Marmalade, after Janet's husband and its orange color.

Then a big tomcat started hanging around. Uh-oh. Girl cat, and needed to be fixed. By this time she was a little more friendly, so Larry packed her up and took her to the vet. Where we learned, for $80, that she'd already been spayed!

Now Charley the outside cat is very friendly indeed. She likes to come inside from time but her chosen spot is on the porch, on a cushion on the rocking chair.

Other favorite place? Napping on the back of the little couch. I'm pretty allergic to cats, so even though I take my meds Charley can only stay in for brief periods.

But there is nothing quite as comforting as a cat on your lap in front of the fire, is there? Which seems to be another of her favorite places.

12 comments:

  1. I have been a dog owner, lover all my life. We have also had many cats but most were stand off-ish like your story tells. After we had to put down our last Lab, we opted for a lone cat.
    Well, just love her(Gracie) and now there is Winston to keep her company! Congratulations on you're new lap mate!

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  2. Charley is happy to hear that his namesake is doing well. He says she has grown and turned out to be a fine looking young lady. :)

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  3. Laughing at Janet's comment!

    Charley sure is a pretty young lady. Isn't that something that she had already been fixed! How did they find that out? I can't believe it cost that much to go to the vet. That's more than my pediatrician charges for my kids!

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  4. Nessa, we missed our wild boy too. He was quite special--but he was a hunter and that ended up being his demise. Charley seems to be more a homebody which is fine with me.

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  5. Peggy, we thought we only wanted one cat too, but now my daughter-in-law might have to give up her cats so I think Charley will have a playmate soon. Which will probably be a good thing for her. Our dogs do better with two of them--they don't get so lonely with just us two old people around.

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  6. Janet, I wanted you to see how she's doing. Isn't she pretty?

    Angela, they couldn't tell from the outside if she'd been fixed--no visible scar, so they had to open her up. Nothing there! I was happy to pay the money just to be sure we weren't going to be unexpected godparents to kittens.

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  7. She is a pretty girl and such the 'outside cat' - lol! I missed the whole learning she was spayed for $80. Dang you think they could have looked for a scar first.

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  8. They did look, Jaime, but really there was no sign of a scar there. Larry opted to go ahead and let them look to be sure. It was okay--money well spent. If your Winnie comes to stay for a while, I think Charley will be quite happy about it!

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  9. A cat is necessary for civilized living. :)

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  10. Highly allergic to cats, so no civilized living for me. I have heard that they are less of a problem if bathed regularly -- I don't know how that would be managed. . .

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  11. I have to be pretty careful too, Mary. Only a few minutes a day inside time for Charley, but lots of petting on the porch.

    Amy, I love having a cat again. It's been a long time since we had one.

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