For the Love of a Cat

As a 'rough around the edges' man who grew up having many dogs as pets I could never understand how or why cat owners could become so attached to cats.

My experience with dogs found them so personable and friendly, not to mention appreciative for every little pat on the head or every scrap of food offered them. My dogs always welcomed me home with briskly wagging tail and a friendly yelp that said, "boy! Am I glad to see you!".

It's not that I disliked cats, but as compared to dogs cats seemed to be more aloof, and standoffish, but then I never owned a cat....or to put it more correctly a cat never owned me.

That is until one cold October night a stray female cat we had made the mistake of feeding honored us with the delivery of four tiny kittens on our back doorstep. Two of the kittens were gray and white while two were black and white.

From the day the litter was born we noticed one of the gray kittens so very awkward and timid she couldn't relate or participate in the frolicking play of her siblings. She was in fact so timid she would not join the other kittens in nursing and we were very concerned that she might not live, but somehow the mother cat sensed the little gray cat was different and took special car to nurse and care for her after the others were at play.

With each passing day the little, timid cat grew more beautiful. Soft long gray hair and a beautifully groomed white vest complimented by four white feet. Her face was mostly white and dotted by two huge green eyes. She was truly beautiful.

As the litter grew older and no longer nursed we fed them twice daily. We were surprised one day to find the mother cat and three of the kittens gone. Only the timid cat remained. Our assumption was that the mother cat knew her last born (the runt of the litter) required care she could not give and that she (the mother) had left the poor little loner in our care and had taken her siblings to a new location where they would not compete with their weaker sister.

We adopted the timid little kitten as she turned six weeks old and referred to her as "Shy", a name that stuck with her for life.

Shy was to live with us for the next twenty years of her life.

During those twenty years this tiny little speck of fur became the best friend I have ever had. She greeted me very morning and insisted on speaking to me every night at bedtime, as if to say, "good-night".

While at home little Shy followed me constantly. If I left the room she was in she would soon come looking for me. When I showered she sat patiently and sometimes not so patiently outside the bathroom door until I finished. If I used the upstairs office she would sit at the foot of the stairs and call with a gentle me-ow, and if that failed she would climb the stairs and curl up on the landing rug until it was time for us to go back downstairs.

She enjoyed reading the newspaper as much as did I, waiting for me to sit in 'reading chair' she would let me unfold the paper and begin reading before she would jump up and unto the paper crushing it into a comfortable nest in m y lap where she would lie purring and waiting to be petted.

It always comforted me to find her curled up and sleeping on a nearby rug.

Last Friday, little Shy passed way at age twenty.

She was a gentle, loving, and caring friend, a friend who in sickness and in health never complained. All she ever expected from us was our presence in her life

I will miss her very much.

I thank God for those twenty years.