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| Name: |
Cherokee
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Age: |
Unknown
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| Gender: |
Male
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Kind: |
Tabby
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| Home: |
Florida, USA |
One
warm late spring morning I went off to work, leaving my windows and
doors open, except of course for the screen doors. My son, home from
college for the summer, was sleeping. When he woke up, he found Cherokee
sprawled on the kitchen table, wearing a collar with a note written on
duct tape attached to his collar, which also had a name tag identifying
him as "Cherokee." "Kitty needs a home," read the note. I thought he was
kidding when he called me at work and asked me where I had gotten "the
big yellow cat in the kitchen."
For a while previously, a woman who rescues cats had lived across the
street from me. What I think must have happened is that Cherokee's prior
owner was looking for this woman, saw a cat or two in my yard, and just
opened the screen door and shoved him in the house, thinking I was the
cat lady. For three days, Cherokee just mostly laid around on the
kitchen table, looking lost and pitiful. After that, he began to eat and
make friends with the other household cats. That was several years ago,
and now he is the sweetest and best-tempered of all my four cats. On
cooler nights he sleeps with his head next to mine on the pillow. For a
big cat, he has a tiny little meow, almost inaudible, but the loudest purr.
I have always had cats, but I have never gone looking for one; they just
find me. Cherokee's arrival is by far the oddest way a cat ever turned
up. I am grateful that whoever had to leave him behind didn't just
abandon him on the streets. He also has the distinction of once being
rescued from the very top of a very tall pine tree by the local firemen,
who graciously took the opportunity to "test" their new ladder truck. I
don't believe he has climbed a tree since.
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