Wednesday, June 2, 2010

A PRELUDE to the KiTTy CaT RoLLeR CoAsTeR ...

I have had so many fun comments, emails, and in person conversations as a result of the last 2 blog posts I thought I would share the stories of some of our other cats. So today is "The Story Of WALTER".
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Several years ago in the fall we started to notice that something was getting into our recycling in the wood shed. This continued for several months - we assumed it was a raccoon. Then Charlie caught a glimpse of it one day . It looked like a cat. So he made it his mission to find him. Every time he went to the wood shed he would hear the scurrying of the cat as he ran & hid. So one day he sat there for ... well, forever ... until the cat came out. A few hours later & Charlie had touched him. The next step was picking him up. Well that was it ! The cat put his little cat arms, one on each side of Charlie's neck, in a little kitty cat hug. Hooked !!
So we took pictures of this cat we had started calling Walter & took them around to the neighbours. No one knew who he belonged to. By now it was winter but it was really mild. But still we worried about Walter. So we put a bed in the furnace room and started feeding him there. Our furnace room is attached to our kitchen and each morning we would hear him meowing at the kitchen door for breakfast.We really wanted to find out who he belonged to ... he was too friendly to be a wild cat.
As time went on we realized that no one was looking for Walter ... he must have been abandoned. So we started looking for a new owner for him. A few people were interested ... they would think about it. Not what we had hoped ... or was it ??
I was home from work one day and heard my cats kicking up a big stink in their little outside run. There was Walter trying to visit with them. I brought the cats in and went back to what I was doing. I heard a noise at the kitchen window ... Walter was looking in and meowing. Oh my. I felt terrible because he seemed so sad. Unable to look at him, I did the mature thing and put a towel over the window. That didn't stop Walter - he climbed up on the roof of the cats' run and looked in the kitchen door window. MEOW ... (that's "Please let me in" in case you don't speak cat ...) I put another towel up and went into the living room. Walter did too ... he came around the house to that window. I then got a sheet of styrofoam insulation and covered that window ( too big for a towel). By the time Charlie came home from work I had covered all the ground floor windows with styrofoam & towels. I was crazy with guilt about this poor cat outside ... I'm sure Charlie thought I had lost it !!
So we were then even more determined to find Walt a good home ... but he did it for us.
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That night we had a snow storm. We went upstairs to bed but I was awakened a few hours later by a CRASH . I got up to find the upstairs window smashed ... Walt had CLIMBED THE ROOF in the snow ( about 6" on the roof !!) and had made his way to the upstairs dormer ... guess he knew that's where we were. Our big girl cat Emma had seen him peeking in the window and lunged ... and smashed the window. This was great for Walt - he strolled on in ! So we grabbed him & put him in the bathroom . We checked out Emma for glass and she was fine. We wanted to keep the cats separated because we didn't know if Walt had any illnesses. SO he slept in the bathroom with a litter box and food and the rest slept just outside the door ! Charlie patched the window with some heavy cardboard and we all tried to get some sleep.
The next morning we put Walt back in the furnace room . Again that night I heard a sound. I checked the window - it looked fine. I went down stairs to see what the trouble was ... it was Walt laying on the rug in front of the wood stove !! He had pushed the cardboard aside just enough to wiggle in. Again he had climbed the roof !!! He was staying and that was it ! So back to the bathroom he went for the night then off to the vets on the morning for a check up and then the other 4 cats all went for needles. From that day on Walter has been a big part of our family !!

3 comments:

Terri C. said...

Walter is sooo HANDSOME!!! He knew where to find a great home now didn't he!! I love your Blogs, which you know, and wait patiently each week to read The New Happenings with Pam!!

Love your Sista Terri lol

Anonymous said...

Walter has good taste :)
Abbey

Anonymous said...

He is a very handsome boy. I wouldn't have been able to resist hi, either!
Taryn


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