Who's Your Daddy?

Dusty's World

We didn't want another cat. Not yet. Losing Sunny last February was the final heartbreak. Before that, Luna kitty vanished ( May 2006) We adopted the two of them from the Humane Society in late 2004. This was soon after our four-year-old cat, Sparky had to be put to sleep. He had some internal injuries that occurred when he fell out of a Ponderosa pine tree at the tender age of four months. We are talking about some seriously rotten luck with kitties. So, we've been cat-less. It seemed like the right thing, after so much sorrow and loss.


I was at my daughter's high school a few weeks ago, dropping something off. I noticed one of the students at a picnic table, playing with a tiny grey kitten. The student that owned her was trying to find a new home for kitty, because her parents did not want to keep her. They had two older kitties, and didn't want to upset them with a young upstart.



The poor creature was being passed around, staying here-and-there, with no real home. I couldn't help but ooooh and ahhhh at the sight of her, and commented on her cuteness. The student replied: " Oh, well I think she's YOURS... aren't you Q's mom? " Later that day, young daughter called me. I waited for her sales pitch, smiling to myself. She was unaware that I had come home to the man and gone on and on about the sweet kitten I'd met. We decided then that we'd let her come home and live with us. She's the nicest thing that's happened to all of us in quite some time. A hellion sometimes, but so incredibly sweet and smart. She makes us happy.



So cherished is she that I can't even imagine ever letting her go outside. Which is a real switch for me-all of our cats have been inside-outside cats. I mean, they're animals. Due to our ill-fated recent history with cats, I find myself newly aware of the danger that awaits her, lurking out there in the redwoods and on our road. Mountain lions are out there. So are several naughty, non-confined dogs. Then there are the cars. And logging trucks. And giant trees to get stuck in. What about cat-hating sadists? What if they were to poison her? These are the neurotic, paranoid thoughts that spin around my brain.

It's a big, bad world out there, for kitties too.