A kitty in the hand....

I have many other things to talk about in the coming months, but today is for Calamity Jane, kitty extraordinaire. She is a sweet faced kitty, 15 plus years old, who measures my moods and needs with a calm and jaundiced eye, having seen it all...

She came to me by chance. She had just been fixed when she arrived in my back yard. She had a collar and a shaved tummy and was very scared and tiny. I figured she belonged to someone, and kept shooing her away, careful to not feed her lest she not return home. She was very good and very quiet, but after a couple of days I realized I could make my fingers meet around her waist... she was also very hungry. I fed her. She went through two cans of cat food before she stopped to sleep.

Now I already HAD a cat I hadn't wanted. Elisha Hunt Rhodes came to me from the old railroad right of way across the street from my house. I used to feed the birds. He appeared in the back yard one day, looking for lunch on a cold winter day. I put out a box and towel and gave him a can of tuna, my only kitty food. A mistake, it turns out, as tuna and cats don't always agree. He slept in the box for the afternoon, but made it known that the house would be a better place for him and would I please arrange it as soon as possible.

I opened the door, and that was all she wrote.

His 'sister' turned up after a while, much in the same fashion, except that I think she was tossed away by someone. I don't think she has ever crossed a street, while he was so adept he would wait at the crosswalk until the cars quit coming. I guessed she scratched the kid after being grabbed while recovering from being fixed... I'll never know. I put up signs, but no one claimed her.

After she ate, she sat outside on the small retaining wall in my back yard. As I used to tell my kids in school, that night she sat there with this LOOK as Elisha and I retired to the house (he was an inside at night kitty). The look said.. "NO... don't mind ME, it's not THAT cold out here... I'LL be FINE.. No... really.. don't you worry about me one bit"

I opened the door.

She entered, moved him to one side, and took over.

C.J, in my fiddle case... It looks as if she has a bow tie, and is ready to play some Mokzark (a tribute to a small friend). She probably could, she has opposable thumbs!

Elisha never minded her being in the house. She , however, took occasional umbrage to HIM, and picked on him mercilessly. She was half his size... when she first came, she would lick him all over, then grab his cheek in her teeth, and bite until his eyes bugged out... He did nothing. She did, however, teach him to play, something he sorely lacked, and he was SO proud each time he picked up a new game. Most of the games ended with him being trounced, but he never seemed to mind. He may have been just a bit dim...


Last Christmas... they had been without blankets before fires for so long that she reveled in it each time I had one. This year she has her PILLOW, a present from Shelby, in South Carolina. C.J. LOVES her pillow... it has a palm tree on it... she thinks she's in Hawaii when there's a fire in the fireplace..


She is the only kitty now, and she is loathe to let me leave. She sleeps on me at night, to make certain I don't escape again. Elisha didn't do well while I was caring for Mom and gone. She survived and has gained weight, although I still can't feel her when she is sleeping on me. She's learned a new skill.. she starts sleeping on my chest, right under my chin. If I wake and turn on my side in the middle of the night, she will sidle over and change position to my hip or armpit and not get up. She's very proud of herself for learning how to do this, and purrs mightily the entire time...

I'm proud of her, too...

and happy she's still here!
On her favorite shelf, over the computer, which is VERY warm... she's learned that her feet can be warmer if they get even closer to the source... I love this picture!