Friday, August 5, 2011

Does this cat look angry?

We live aboard Drift Away with two young pit bulls and three cats.   One cat is a kitten (she's turning into a real terror), one a fat three legged Snowshoe Siamese, and one is an old lady cat.   Smudge is 20 years old, almost as old as Pam's son, who is in the Air Force.   She's an interesting cat, all white with one blue eye and one yellow eye.  Kinda freaky, actually.  She's going downhill though with kidney problems and other ailments.   She eats ravenously but is all skin and bones and her fur is getting kinda wierd, sticking out in spots.

Smudge is the only boat critter who gets off the boat and wanders around the docks on her own, sometimes during the day but mostly at night.  One recent morning, Pam was doing a critter count and came up misssing one.   Smudge.  She looked all around the boat in the usual hidey places.  Nothing.   She then looked around the docks and came back to announce that Smudge was cat-napped.

"How do you know?"  I asked.

"Because there's a can of tuna and a cup of milk up there."

Hmmmm... try as I might, I could not think of any other logical explanation.   Pam saw an older gent walking his dog and went up to ask if he saw a white cat in his travels.   As it turned out, his grand-daughters saw Smudge the night before and, because of her decrepit condition, thought she was a starving stray.   Pam explained the cat's age and condition and he called his daughter.  Smudge was retrieved and all turned out well.

Pam decided that if Smudge was going to wander off the boat, especially looking like she does, she should have a collar with our phone number on it.


Old folks don't like change much, and I do not believe Smudge has ever worn a collar before.  Does this cat look angry to you?

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