AUGUST

Adventures in Cat-sitting

This month was....interesting.....  I took a language class that I did not enjoy and volunteered to cat-sit knowing that I'm not an indoor pet fan but because basically noone else seemed available to watch the cat for this family of 2 students at my school while they were gone this month.  I'd rather not recall the language class and am just glad its over so I'll just write about the cat-sitting experience.........

I had come over to meet the cat prior to taking off last month just to test out whether or not I could commit.  He was kind of cute as far as adult cats go.   A fat, white cat with colored fur over his mouth that looked like a mustache.   He appropriately ignored me when I showed up and that pretty much sealed the deal that we'd get along just fine for a month.......

When I got back in town he was nowhere around for the first few days and because I couldn't get the internet working at first, I didn't spend the first 3 days back there.  By the time I spent my first day there his owners had been gone for almost a week and he hadn't been coming around since the day before they left (apparently he knew they were leaving and was upset).    I'll finish this account with the e-mail and pictures I sent to 2 coworkers who had previously watched this cat ......"Around 6:45 this evening I heard it crying at the kitchen door.  It seemed kind of early in the evening but I figured it'd been 4 days since he'd been around (he stopped 2 days before Mr. Rotter left) and opened the door to let it in.  It kept crying and looking at me instead of coming in which I thought was strange.   So I pushed the food nearer to the door and opened it wider.  Eventually the cat came in and started chowing down.

I was warming up food and remembered that I didn't notice it's mustache that had me so mesmerized the last time but it was going to town on the food by then so I really couldn't see.  It seemed REALLY hungry which is understandable after 4 days and it made me think the cat had lost lot of weight since I last saw it.  But if it hadn't eaten in only just 4 days the amount of weight loss seemed curious because I recall a pretty big cat.

I then remembered what you all & Didi told me about strays trying to come in and thought, "wasn't Sahara WHITE with accent markings?". Then I started wondering if this was Sahara.  I opened the door wider and it stopped eating and at my urging went out the door which I promptly shut.

The cat started crying and looking at me like I'd betrayed it then moved between the kitchen and pool door for half an hour before stalking off.   I didn't see the trademark mustache I remembered  so I wasn't about to let it back inside if it was a stray since I'd planned to keep it in with me all night. It had already devoured half the food and I figured 1-if it wasn't Sahara I had already been pretty nice and had no obligations to it whatsoever and
2- if it WAS Sahara I felt bad for kicking him out but I had to be sure but at least I'd half-fed him and hopefully he's not discouraged from coming back........ Is THIS their cat?!!"     



This e-mail was entitled 'Whose cat is this?!!!'   Do I REALLY need to say that this was NOT Sahara?

The rest of the story abbreviated is.......  Sahara- the big, fat, white cat returned 2 days later but wasn't the cat I anticipated.  I guess he was so used to being babied and handled by 3 little girls that in their absence he'd become starved for affection.  He kept following me around the house, mewing at me, rubbing up against me, jumping on my chair, swatting at my legs, stealing my shoes and running away and even wanted to sleep in my room...on my bed...WITH me.  That's a BIG no!  I think he realized after 2 weeks that it wasn't going to work and took off.  For a week I'd ask the guards if they'd seen him and they would report seeing him while I was away, hanging in the garbage, roaming down the street and referred to him as a street cat.  Since he didn't show up while I was there, a week later I took off.   The family went looking for him a few days after they returned and found him in a field nearby.  He was pink.

Please, PLEASE don't ask me to watch your animals unless they're anti-social and/or contained in some kind of container.