This time, I had a couple things I wanted to do, and one was to take a few pictures related to the recent Bobo incident. First, I wanted to get a picture of the broken concrete where her chain (Bobo is a "she," by the way) got caught and where I rescued her.
So here it is, at the corner of my mom's garage ...
The chain was caught in several places, and I marked its path in red. I have no idea how the cat managed to get it tangled the way it was. But the only thing that mattered is that I got her free.After that picture, I wanted a picture of Bobo herself, to go with that post. So we went to the neighbor's house.
My wife liked that idea because she loves to hold and play with cats--her own or any others she comes across--and they have plenty of friendly cats at the neighbor's. She went inside and brought out Bobo, who, as I said before, doesn't have a tail--she's a Manx cat. So here are the neighbor and my wife and Bobo. I'm sure you can figure out who is who ...
There are lots of cats in this house (which is why my wife likes to visit), of various sizes. One of the cats over there had multiple toes--I named her Bigfoot--but she had gotten killed, run over by a car in front of the house. It's a rural road, as you remember. During a recent visit (before Bobo's rescue), she told us about the cat's death and that one of her grandsons, who lives with her (her daughter died about a year ago), was all broken up about that.
Back to this week. The neighbor said they had been noticing something had been eating the cat food inside the house. One night recently someone saw a kitten getting a snack. Nobody knew anything about this kitten! It was a surprise to them. So she's a part of the family now.
She went inside again and came out with this little ball of gray fluff. "And look at the feet,"she said ...
No question about it. It's the progeny of Bigfoot ...
We left a few minutes later to do some shopping and then to visit my mom. It was a nice, sunny day, so we took her out for a ride so she could see how the leaves were changing color ...
I suggested that we stop at the house, since she was telling us how colorful those trees are in fall. One of them turns a nice red. Here's a picture I took earlier in the day ...
So we drove there, went in the driveway and looked around at the trees. Then I got an idea. "Would you like to see your neighbor?" The neighbor has always been asking about my mom and how she is doing--they were pretty good friends. My mom said yes, so we went down one driveway and up the next.
They were so happy to see each other again. Since my mom is so frail, I didn't think she wanted to get out, but I brought over a folding chair, and she sat right next to the car.
The cats were around; my wife had found one and was cuddling it. Then the neighbor went inside for a minute and came out with Bigfoot Jr. and gave it to my mom.
Delight spread over her face. I can't begin to tell you how happy she was, just holding that little grey ball of fluff! It was, she explained, the first time she has held a cat or kitten in the two years since her fall, when she had to leave home and move into the nursing home. She sat and held the kitten for maybe about 15 minutes, just looking at it and petting it. Even talking to it ...
She has loved cats all her life. After she graduated from high school and was working in Iron Mountain (walking several miles back and forth to her parents' home each day; this was during World War II), she had a gray and white cat named Susie. She would often tell us about walking home, down the dirt road in the dark--and hearing a "meow" when she got to a certain place. It was Susie, coming to meet her.
That was over 60 years ago. She told the neighbor about Susie, and the neighbor immediately decreed that the kitten will be named Susie.
It could only be a visit. We all knew that. They don't allow nursing home residents to have pets. The little kitten would have to stay behind at the neighbors. But my mom told me later that she wants to visit again and hold the little kitten--along with visiting another neighbor who wasn't home that afternoon.
The visit at the neighbor's house was much longer than I expected, so we abandoned plans for a fall color tour--we had to get my wife home for her church meeting, and we were already running late. So we went to Hardee's, got our sandwiches and ate them in the car. Then we took my mom back to the nursing home, got her back in her room and drove off ... 40 minutes from our fateful rendezvous with that jaywalking deer. (F---ing deer!)
But as my mom was drifting off to sleep that night ... I imagine in her mind she was still holding that little gray kitten with all those toes.
Everybody say "Awwwwwwww!"
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