Fred Born July 1996
The story of Fred starts with my brother's divorce.
I found Fred at The Scratching
Post cat adoption shelter on October 8, 1996.
I had been at my parent's visiting when my father announced to me that
my youngest brother would be getting a divorce from his wife.
I never knew this woman very well, but for some reason this hit me hard.
It is probably because my brother was hurt by her moving out west to
find her way under the western sky.
Well, I left my parent's house and went to get on the express way
when
I missed the on ramp. I continued south on Montgomery Road until
I remembered the Scratching post was in Silverton not far where I
was. So, I decided to stop by for a visit. I arrived and
was let in by one of the care takers.
I was still a little gun shy about having a cat because of the loss
of my cat George in 1993 who I was very fond of. He was only four
years old when he suddenly died of cardial myopathy. Since then
I had not considered getting another cat.
The woman had almost convinced me to take an orange cat that was hand
raised by her when someone else said that he was already spoken for.
I then thought, "Why am I here. I don't need another cat.
I need to leave." I then reminded myself that I was home by myself.
I did feel kind of lonely and I guess I needed some sort of companionship.
I walked around and asked about various cats. The woman said that
she had no more young cats, that I should consider an older one.
The problem was the adoption people's marketing efforts were paying
off and they had very few cats left to adopt that weren't feral.
I walked back into a room with caged cats and saw that they were
quarantined for various reason. Then a small paw stretched out
and tapped me on the arm. I looked into the cage and saw this
young fellow, about 5 months old. I opened the cage door and
he clawed his way onto my shoulder; then he settled down. I rolled
him in the fetal position and he did not rip my arm off, so I asked
about him.
No one seemed to know where he came from or what breed of cat he
was. But, being the good Samaritans they were, they created some
paper work on him, gave him his shots, and send us on our
way.
|
We got to my house and I showed him where
everything was and I then went to the second floor to set about
finishing the laundry. This included the bed cloths and the
comforter cover.
I was sitting on the bed when the little guy jumped up along side of me and made himself at home. I looked down at him and...
I then went and retrieved a picture of George I had taken when I first
found him. There sitting next to me on that same comforter was this
fellow...an identical cat.
George August 1988 - January 1993
When the above picture of George was taken he was about
7 months old. This is also when I bought the new comforter. Since
then I had purchased several covers for the comforter. It was
a coincidence that I had been doing the laundry that day and the cover
was off.
In keeping with the simplicity of names, I called this new guy Fred.
It just came to mind.
When I saw him in the cage,
I had not paid any attention as to what breed of cat Fred was, just
that he was a nice guy. It turns out that like George, he is an
American Short-haired Silver Tabby.
The only difference between George and Fred is that Fred has this little
tiny light colored cowlick sticking up on his forehead.
I am not sure I believe in reincarnation, but I guess it is true that
cats do choose their owners. Fred Choose me. To this day
he has been a joy in my life.
Hay... rough night?
Fred, like George, has been my bud when no one else
would be.
Well, we hang out together. He is the most patent
cat I have ever met. I think that he would starve before getting
mad at me for forgetting to feed him.
He's a friendly fellow who greets all who come to visit. He especially
has an affinity for Pei Lin.
|