We were walking on the wild path near our house, Mike and I. This was Kiln, Mississippi; Mike is my ex-husband. Everybody, this is Mike, Mike, this is everybody.
“Look at that beautiful white cat!” said Mike, who was well used to my love for felines. I looked and indeed, half-hidden in some brush, was a gorgeous all white cat, with fairly long hair but not an Angora head, and startling blue eyes.
“Say there, stay there, you’ll scare him off!” I urged Mike. I moved forward veeeeery slowly, with utmost precaution, and called very softly to the kitty. I was convinced he would run away. Not only did he not run away, but without hesitation, when I called, he jumped right out on the road and came to meet me in the friendliest manner. Mike burst out laughing at all my precautions to approach a perfectly tame cat.
So I petted the little creature and made a proper fuss over it. I even picked it up and held it for a while. By his size, I say he was in his teens, in cat years. Then, well, it was time to walk back home, so I reluctantly put him down. Mike and I turned around and started walking, and once again without the slightest hesitation, the cat fell to walking behind us. I turned around frequently, puzzled and delighted, and he was there. He followed us all the way to the house.
Clearly, something had to be done. Here was a cat who wanted me. However, I already had not one, not two, but three cats at home, plus the Dog of my Life, Rosie the yellow Lab. Still I decided to take this new one under my wing because I was imagining him lost, hungry and badly in need of shelter. My cats didn’t go out. No way was I bringing fleas and other creatures within the house. I sat on my porch and I laid my conditions to the newcomer:
“I’ll let you in, but there’s a mandatory bath.”
Now let me speak to cat lovers: how many cats do you know that would have said OK? Even better: how many
perfectly strange cats would have said OK? ‘Cause remember, we had first met about 15 minutes earlier.
Well, he said OK.
So I took him to the bathtub, fully convinced I was going to have the usual cat show on my hands: all claws out, eyes rolling, fur flying, and cat voice screaming: “MY GOD! She means to drown me! HEEEEEELP, someone, anyone, HEEEELP!” At least that’s what my cats give me at bath time.
I had a strange feeling about this cat. This cat was no ordinary cat. This was the most special cat I ever met in my life. Fifteen minutes after meeting me for the first time ever, this cat let me give him a bath with perfect compliance and cooperation! Better yet:
he let my dry him off with the hair dryer! Relaxed. Rather pleased with the warm air. Do I need to draw you a picture of what my cats would have done had I even TRIED to point a hair dryer in their direction?
I was absolutely baffled and seduced. I put him on my bed where he laid purring peacefully. Koba jumped on and had a dubious look and sniff at him and was he worried? No sirree, not him. He looked at her with very friendly and open manners and didn’t stir by an inch. Soon, all my three cats were aware there was a Stranger in the house and really weren’t too sure how they felt about that, but he seemed to consider it all perfectly normal.
Next I introduced him to Rosie. A little cat, a strange new dog: would he finally betray some fear? Rosie raised her ears and smelled him with curiosity. He raised his back and… rubbed against her! Unbelievable.
That afternoon, we had an errand to do. I didn’t want to leave the newcomer at home all alone at the mercy of the old timers, so I decided…to take him with me. You know the picture of my cats and the hair dryer? Use the same picture for my cats and car rides. But not this white wonder. I sat in the passenger seat and put him on my knees. Next thing you know, he laid on his back along my thighs and went to sleep. Sleep, not nervous, jittery wake, sound sleep. We were gone for about 45 minutes; he never budged from my knees.
I should have kept him. When you meet a cat this special, you keep him. But I was obsessed with how three cats were really the limit. So I moved heaven and earth to find somebody who would adopt him. I find someone who said yes maybe so I promised to bring him to her. He was so beautiful, that white cat with blue eyes, that I knew no one could resist him once they saw him.
That morning I took him to work with me (to somebody’s home office). This time I was driving, but he once again stretched out on my knees, right under the steering wheel and slept with an air of: “Gee, I’ve done this a thousand times before!”
There was no need for cages, or boxes or anything like that with him. He spent part of the morning on my knees while I worked on the computer, than wandered off to explore a bit. Suddenly, Ann, my boss, and I heard horrible sounds coming from the kitchen, urgent, desperate meows of a cat that’s nothing short of dying. We ran to the kitchen, me fearing what I would see…and we fell about laughing helplessly.
He had been walking on the counter where there were glue mouse traps. He had gotten all four paws stuck on one, then had helplessly fallen from the counter to the floor, and now laid in a messed up heap, all paws stuck and half his fur along with it. He was very scaredpoor dear, and though still giggling, I quickly got a hold of him and reassured him. Getting his paws to come off was not so bad. But there was no way the long, beautiful white fur was parting with that glued cardboard. Out came the scissors. I had to give him the most dreadful and uneven haircut a cat’s ever had. He looked totally funky once I was done with him but he had regained much of his composure.
In spite of his funky haircut, the girl agreed to take him. I went back once to her place to visit him. She had called him Casper, which I thought was horrible. And when I saw him again, the magic seemed to have gone out of him and he behaved entirely like a normal cat. Sort of standoffish, not very interested in me. That was the last I ever saw of him.
I’ll never forget him. I should have kept him. He had magic.
