Читать книгу Reward, Lost Cat, The Search for Spock - Donald Jr. Weiser - Страница 7

Beth has a cat book, “The Book of the Cat”, which describes the various breeds of cats along with lovely pictures and lengthy explanations of genetics and other breeding factors. I looked at the pictures. I should mention here that, in what now seems like a former life it was so long ago, I was married and my wife and I had two Siamese cats. It was so long ago and the Siamese breed looked quite different from the way they do today. Their heads were not so exaggeratedly elongated, more apple shaped. I believe that one reason for the Siamese falling from popularity is that breeders have gone too far with the way the cat looks. I will always love the intelligence and devotion of the Siamese but I just don't like the way they look today. There's another thing I don't think I could stand anymore about the breed and that's the almost constant talking. At this stage of my life I enjoy a little quiet and that's NOT what people get Siamese cats for! I don't even listen to Pink Floyd all that loud any more.

I found a beautiful fairly new breed called the Tonkinese which is a cross between the Siamese and the quieter Burmese. The cat is a beauty with less exaggerated features than the Siamese but lovely blue eyes. Supposed to be an intelligent, inquisitive, and loyal cat too. I confess to liking inquisitive cats. If I want a meatloaf, I'll make one and stare at it. Sure, an inquisitive cat will drive you bonkers sometimes and will always be getting into everything but what a joy to be around! I still might have a Tonk someday but in Beth's cat book I fell in love with a cat so smart, so beautiful, so catlike that I had to have one. I fell in love with the Abyssinian. Here was a cat that was intelligent, loyal, and sometimes utterly crazy the way Jones was when he was younger.

To all those out there saying to themselves, he should have gone to the shelter and saved a cat from you know what, I can only justify my actions by the following. Mr. Jones came from the Deerpark Shelter in Port Jervis, N.Y. If any cat I ever have can be anywhere near the friend and companion to me that he has, that cat will be a wonder. I do not know Jones' mixture but I strongly believe that one of his parents was Siamese because he is all black (if a Siamese mates with a nonSiamese, the kittens are invariably black but not all black cats are part Siamese that's the fallacy of the contra-positive), because of his elongated head shape, and because he has a Siamese voice. He also has bald spots from his eyes to his ears where the Siamese "points" would develop. Katy, Jones' cat sister mentioned earlier, was a stray who came to me at college one winter; cold, hungry, and pregnant. I found homes for Katy's kittens, she had them on my couch, and had Katy spayed. Katy lived with us for the next fifteen years. I never got really close to Katy and to this day prefer male cats.

Before moving to North Carolina last July, I had lived in Albany, N.Y. for 17 years. My last apartment there was in the city, a basement apt. A woman who loves cats lived in an apartment, one street over, in back of mine. One evening in late Fall her house burned and although she saved many of her cats, I believe some escaped to become homeless. I don't know how many cats she had but it was enough that everything she owned smelled like a litter pan: her car, her clothes, her money. This can happen if one crosses that invisible line between having the proper number of cats for the size of the dwelling and having just one more. I'm sure there is a mathematical formula somewhere for calculating this. Something like X = L.S./CAT # where X would represent the ratio of the number of square feet of living space divided by the number of cats. What you want is a fairly large value for X. I may be wrong but I think it's one of the things Einstein was working on along with his unified field theory near the end of his life but the important point here is that there is a line I would not recommend crossing. Days after the fire there were several strays outside my small apartment. What do you do with stray cats? You feed them and put water out for them. If you've never had the pleasure of living through an Albany winter let me just say it’s COLD out there. I let the strays into my apartment, at least the ones that weren't too wild to even entertain the idea and fed them all. Some of the females were pregnant, so I found, with the help of Whisker's (a nokill shelter), homes for all the kittens and mothers and had the boys and the girls put out of the future kitten business. (It helps to have a good paying job if you're going to go soft on animals just like it helps NOT to have one when your cat disappears but that’s for later. I had both at the right times.) From what I can only estimate at 20 to 30 strays, Whiskers and I got the number down to just two. One, an orange tabby, Sam, came with me (as did Jones and Spock) to North Carolina and the other, a beautiful, proud, and wild gray cat who I called Grayman stayed behind. He would not let himself be caught. I left cat food and a note for the new tenant asking that Grayman be fed and watered. I hope she followed through. (I spoke with my old landlord after I moved to NC and found that Grayman was being fed by that gracious tenant.) I guess there is no justification for getting a purebred cat when so many wonderful cats are killed for want of a home. I can't justify it to myself nor to you except that I wanted an Abyssinian and I was going to have one. In the meantime, I did some good for the stray cats of Albany and perhaps atoned slightly for my previous cruelty with firearms.

Beth went along with my excitement for an Aby cat. We bought issues of “Cat Fancy” and “Cats” magazines. In the back of these magazines are listings of breeders by breed of every cat. We found some Aby breeders in the city (NYC) but I hate to drive down there so we also saw a listing for an Aby breeder in Vermont. From Albany, some parts of Vermont can be close and some far away. We called the folks in Vermont and they were from the far away part and didn't have any kittens right then but they were very nice and we talked for a while. The man told us about Jim and John in Schenectady, N.Y. who had recently bred their female to the male in Vermont. The man in Vermont said Jim and John didn't have a phone but gave us their address and told us something about Jim and John. He said, in a heavy New England accent, that John was quite a talker and that Jim "never said a word". He also added that Jim and John were very nice people but were a couple of them "funny fellers". I guessed what he meant. Beth and I drove to Schenectady, a distance of about 15 miles west on the New York State Thruway to where Jim and John lived. Some people drive hundreds of miles to see Aby kittens while others have their kitten flown to them sight unseen because of the often great distances separating breeders from prospective owners and here I had found a breeder with kittens in the next town. Were the cat gods smiling on me?

Jim and John weren't home so we left a note for them to call us when they got in. That night, Saturday, John called us and we set up a time to see the kittens on Sunday. Beth was flying back to North Carolina Sunday so we had to fit the kitten visit in. Beth and I were together every other weekend; either she in Albany or me in North Carolina. The following day we again drove to Schenectady and met Jim and John. True to their billing, John talked and talked and talked. Jim never said a word. We met Spock, his two red sisters and his Mom. Litters of Abys tend to be small (3 to 4 kittens) and very often there will be some reds and some ruddys. Spock was (just using the past tense bothers me so maybe for awhile I'll say Spock is) a ruddy which is the regular color for Abys. Spock was 12 weeks old, just old enough for an Aby to be separated from its mother. He was beautiful and playful. I wanted this cat! The asking price was $300 which is normal for an Aby which will be a pet, i.e. neutered and not bred. No fast stuff allowed you don't get your registered pedigree until you submit proof of neutering. Show quality Abys can run $1,000 or more. I learned all about Spock's pedigree and the Champions and Grand Champions in his lineage. Spock was born July 28, 1988 which made him a Leo, a good sign for a cat! Jones is also a Leo as are some of my 2 legged friends. I had never seen an Aby up close let alone four of them and two of them reds! The idea of showing Spock at cat shows intrigued me but it still seemed like something old women and rich people did. Couldn't they call it something other than Cat Fancy? I know now I was wrong about that but Spock was going to be neutered and live a long and wonderful life with me, as Jones has. This new cougar like cat was going to be my Jones replacement (when Jones “retired”) for the next 15 to 20 years and boy was I excited about it! It's important to get excited about things. I recommend it at least once a year.

The month was October and with Christmas coming Beth offered to get Spock as my Christmas present. I never thought twice and accepted her generous offer on the spot. Spock came home with us that afternoon. We barely had time to get Spock acquainted with his new surroundings when I had to take Beth to the airport. I should mention that John gave me Spock's favorite toy to keep. It was a rabbit's foot with a bell on it. Spock loved it and would fetch it whenever thrown. We spent many happy hours tossing that rabbits foot in the air and watching Spock leap great leaps to catch it and bring it back to me so the game could be repeated endlessly. If I wasn't in the mood, Spock would throw it in the air himself by holding it in his mouth and tossing it up in the air and then catching it. I don't know how many times my sofa was lifted by me to retrieve the foot after being lost by Spock. He would pace around and sometimes whine looking for it only to toss it under the couch again. Maybe he liked seeing me lift the couch up.

Spock brought a new excitement into my life as anyone who has had a kitten recently can agree. If you haven't had a kitten around in recent years, get one! This new learning life for which the world is an exciting and wonderful place can shake the accumulated dust off any human. Spock had so many cute things he did that I will try to restrain myself. One, I must tell you. Every morning, after my shower, Spock would jump up on the bathroom sink/vanity and, while I brushed my thinning hair, would stand up on his hind legs and flail his front arms furiously. I finally figured out he wanted to be brushed too. I got Spock his own (green) brush and began brushing him when I brushed my own hair. This got to be such a routine that Spock would get up a little before me each morning and wait on the bathroom vanity for me to get out of the shower so he would get brushed. At these times he would purr madly with eyes transfixed and seem to be where the Buddha says people can go with the proper discipline. These were special times for us, more so now that they're gone. I think I could live an eternity and not forget the absolute sweetness of that cat standing on his hind legs, arms flailing, asking for some brushing. Beth and I have pictures. "Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you."

Spock was a watcher of television. I can take it or leave it but I am religious about certain shows. Jeopardy and Twin Peaks, for instance. Spock actually watched TV intently. I think he especially liked Alex Trebeck from Jeopardy because he was always touching Alex's face very softly with his paw. I'd had Spock about a week and some friends brought over their new Sony Camcorder to show me and to see Spock. We taped about an hour of Spock playing with his rabbit foot and his paper bag. My friends made me a regular VHS size copy of the tape and sometimes (on slow nights) I would play it for Spock. I'm not sure if he knew it was him on TV or just another cat but he had a great time touching that cat on TV with his paws. I have photos of this also.