Musings From The Edge: Collecting a Managerie

Those of you who been reading my writing for a while have often heard me muse about my best friend Rascal whose photo I use for my avatar. Well, he is only a part of a menagerie that adopted us when we bought our house in 2004. When we came to start moving into this house we were met by this pup who was about 6 months old who met us in the drive way barking his head off and reasonably determined that we were not about to get into the drive way much less get out of the car. Thinking he was a neighbors dog I got out of the car and began trying to shoo him away. He had a distinct advantage since he could bark louder than I could shoo him. Every time I came back out of the house he would start up again. After a day or so of this I started walking around the neighborhood trying to determine whose dog was trying to chase us away from our newly purchased home. Everyone said the same thing, “I don’t know but I’m glad he’s bothering you now and leaving me alone now.” Not very promising information. I probably had talked to the owner but he wouldn’t claim the annoying little brat. After several more days of this I figure “What the hell,” maybe if I feed him he will at least stop aggravating me. Well, it worked, ,,, sorta. He stop trying to chase us away so we made a place for him in the garage. The it started getting really cold and we had no heat in the garage so we brought him side – just until it warmed up. Wrong. He is now a permanent resident of the house 7 years later. I did not plan on having a dog because of my travel schedule. But now we have a dog and I love him to death. Now he isn’t a little pup. He is 85 lbs of romping, stomping, hell, death, and destruction to all humans who dare to even dare walk onto his property. That’s kinda of nice because we don’t worry about Jehovah’s Witnesses coming to our door. They just throw their literature out by the street and keep walking.. In fact on Halloween I take my trash can out to the street just so the kids can turn them over as a trick since they can’t come to the door for a treat.

All we had at the time we were moving in was one cat, Trouble, and she really was no problem at all. But as luck would have it, just as we were moving to the house a friend brought us a 3 or 4 week kitten that had been found on the side of the road. We took it in and fed it until she became a very healthy cat that when she sits around the house she really sits around the house (a little on the plump side if you know what I mean.). Her name became Runt because she was so small at the time but I have suggested other names to which Shirley has given me dirty looks. Shirley is the real cat person. Within a year there was another cat, full-grown, that started hanging around the house. Big, orange grumpy looking cat (see the photo). Well, guess what, next thing you know we had a third cat living in the house. Because of his obviously similar looks to the cartoon character he became known as Garfield. Garfield is a strange cat in several different ways. First, the vet said that we would be able to keep him inside because cats that grew up outside would never become an inside cat. WRONG! Garfield loves it inside. Sometimes I think he sits at the windows and laughs at the outside cats. Another thing is that I have started calling Garfield a Dat. He may be a cat but he acts more like a dog. Unlike most cats he follows me around everywhere I go even into the shower. He tries to eat dog food even though he gets sick and throws it up. If Rascal is lying in the middle of the floor Garfield is lying right beside him. Really weird. Another thing he does, and if any of cat people have seen this I would like to know. He lies on the floor like a bear skin rug (again see the photo). His front two legs are stretched out in front of him and his back to legs are stretched out in back of him and he his virtually flat on the floor.
During the time of collecting this inside bunch we discovered that our neighbor hood was a bit over run with feral cats. Shirley insisted that we fix them a place to get out of the weather. So, now the crawl space under the house has LED lights under there and there are large feeders and water containers under there. The door is rigged so that cats can go in and out but not dogs. This past year we trapped 15 feral cats and had them all fixed to try to keep the population down. I also had to put a cat door into the garage for three cats that now make the garage a permanent home. I don’t know how cats send out their messages of where the free food is to be found or where there is a warm dry place to get in out of the weather but it seems to be as efficient as the internet. All I know is that those critters can eat a lot of food and during bad weather they make a hell of a lot of noise under the house.

Our last addition to our inside bunch is Quirt, a solid black, cross-eyed little devil that was hanging out at a Lowe’s parking lot. He was about two months old when Shirley enticed him with a can of tuna fish and brought him home with us. That skinny little kitten has now grown into a really big cat and has attached himself to Rascal. I guess since both of them are black he must think Rascal is his big brother or something. Anytime you see Rascal, Quirt is right there with him. Don’t ask me about the name because I don’t remember where we got it. It has something to do with a Daffy Duck cartoon or something. Suffice to say that is rarely a dull moment around here.

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