I’ve officially gone to the dark side of the animal kingdom. I’ve become attached to a cat.
Cats are arrogant, independent, stubborn, and only want attention when they decide. I’ve always been a dog lover, and I will always be one. I’ve had several wonderful dogs in my life, but a feline has worked his way onto my lap and into my heart.
My family acquired its first cat when we lived in Sebewaing. A skinny black cat showed up in the tree outside of the picture window.
At that time, my youngest son wasn’t very old, and his primary entertainment was watching "Sesame Street." The lessons for that day the cat showed up was the number six and the difference between Mr. Mrs., and Miss.
My son was so excited to see the cat he kept jumping up and down, pointing and laughing.
He tried to explain to me what he was excited about but he didn’t know the word cat. He just knew there was something “unusual” that moved in the tree that wasn’t a bird.
He struggled to find the word to explain the animal in the tree. He finally settled on the two words he had just learned — six and Mrs. As the cat kept returning to be fed and petted, its name became Mrs. Six.
She would show up each day at about 4 p.m., to be fed and petted for about an hour and then wander off. Then, she adopted us and started staying at our place.
When we relocated several months later to Unionville, Mrs. Six came with us. She was the boys’ pet and stayed outside. I didn’t have much interaction with her.
And, several years later a feline worked his way on to my lap and into my heart.
Bob the Cat was thrown away at my place several years ago. I tried my best to ignore him thinking he would eventually find his way home, but he didn’t.
Inch my inch he became a member of the family. In the fall, he was allowed to live in the garage when the rains started. As winter came, he was allowed in the back room, and eventually into the house. An uneasy truce was developed between us, and finally acceptance became a friendship.
Because of Mrs. Six and Bob, I learned cats can adopt people. That is what happened at the library in Ubly.
Ten years ago a stray cat kept showing up. It was eventually adopted by the library staff. They named the cat Booker. He has the run of the library and is a big hit with the patrons.
Also, I recently came across a story about a cat that was adopted by a school in California. The cat would show up when school started. He would go off during the summer months to return again when school began.
The students named the cat Room 8. The cat adopted the school in 1952 and continued its pattern of returning when school started and leaving for the summer until the late 1960s, when he passed away.
Over the years, media outlets did a story on the Room 8 cat. The cat became so famous he even got hundreds of pieces of fan mail addressed to him at the school. Room 8 was featured in a documentary and a book was also written about him, according to the information I read.
The cat was so famous his obituary even ran in newspapers.
Because Room 8 never had a normal home, the students held fundraisers to buy him a headstone to mark his final resting place in a pet cemetery in California.
Like I said, cats are arrogant, independent, stubborn, and only want attention when they decide, but they can also provide companionship and comfort to those they choose to adopt.
But only when they want to.
Mary Drier is a freelance reporter and columnist for the Huron Daily Tribune.
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