The Most Tenacious Tabby of All Time

When I was growing up, my family owned a number of pets. Most were cats, a few dogs and some stray birds from time to time.

This story is from a favorite personal memory of a cat named Charlie Brown.

Charlie was another stray that one of my brothers found one day, hiding in the bushes from an annoying, barking dog.

He was a typically striped, orange tabby or "Tiger cat" as we referred to him. Although he was a bit ruffled and dirty, he had beautiful green eyes, white "mittens" and bib along with freckled cheeks.

Charlie Brown was named after the cartoon Charlie Brown because he was always being picked on by our other pets. Our other cat, Mimi, was the alpha female and ruler of the house. As the dominant cat, she kept him in his place.

The other two were dogs; Sam, a beagle and terrier mix and Ralph, an American fox hound. Charlie didn't seem to get along with the others so he never stayed around very much. He would go off on trips for a few days always returning home dirty and hungry.

He was also very tenacious and soiled on us if he didn't get his way. When my family moved across the country, from New York to Arizona, he would relieve himself on one of our shoes, without warning. One incident involved my dad driving in city traffic around Houston and he crawled under his seat and urinated on his foot. That could have been a disaster in the making, so he had to keep his cool while that cat was underfoot.

The most amazing thing about him, apart from that one bad habit, was his sense of direction. We could take him for a ride in the bike basket, a few miles away from our house and he would jump out and always find his way back home.

When we returned to New York, we moved to a new home about 5 miles away from our previous one. As soon as we moved in, he disappeared and our old neighbor called to let us know that Charlie Brown was at her house! My dad retrieved him and this happened many times; so many that we lost count!

My neighbor ended up "adopting" him so he would be safe and not risk being hit. After all he had to cross three main roads, railroad tracks, many neighborhoods and a woods to get back. We ended up visiting him and he seemed happy there. As it turned out, he never strayed again. Maybe he just didn't like children!

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tabby-types.jpg)