This is a story I don't want to start, because when write it, then it has to be true.
It's a story about Violet. Violet my cat. The last time I saw him was on the 22 of January 2003.
It was a cold day. I thought back to the eve before. Violet was there waiting for supper. I picked him up but he did
not like it very much. I remember back to a few days earlier. He came for supper and he was so dusty I could not
believe it. By the last time I saw him, he had cleaned himself up nicely.
Violets story starts back in the spring of 1997. As I was tending to Mama and her 4 kittens. Then from no where
came a feral cat. I called her Scruffy as she looked so thin and dirty. I thought to myself, I don't need another cat,
especially one that could be sick. Scruffy was very persistent. She did not mix with the other cats, but always
showed up at meal time. A few days later, I happened under the carport. I had put a tarp over a lawn mover for the
winter. For some reason I removed the tarp. To my surprise I saw kittens scurrying about. In all there were four.
There was little patches, Violet, tiger and whiskers. The mother was a very proud mother and seemed a bit relived
that her secret was out. It was less than a month that little patches left with her Mother one day and was found
dead with in 24 hours. Now there are three. The kittens were doing well and went to the vet for their baby shots.
Tiger seemed a bit sick the next day. I took him back to the vet. He had a severe neurologic reaction to one of the
shots. Tiger stayed at the vet for several days. Thats when I found out one of the shots had caused the reaction and
had caused him to be deaf. Whiskers was fine but always seemed to have a really bad disposition around others.
Violet was a very sweet cat. He used to sit and look up at the bird feeder for hours and just watch the birds and
squirrels. The next year Jake the dog came to live here. For some reason, when ever Jake came out Violet was right
there purring and rubbing up against him. Now Violet was a boy and at a very young age got his name. After I
found he was a boy, I just left it and he did not seem to mind. When the kittens were about 6 months old they all
took a trip to the vet to be neutered, even Scruffy- their mom. By now scruffy was all filled out, clean and was quite
a beautiful cat. A few short weeks afer her spade, she left, never to be seem again. The kittens had a good home
and seemed quite happy. I tried to bring Tiger in the house to live, but he was so unhappy. So I let him stay
outside. All the kitties lived in the back yard and seemed quite happy.
The next year Cinder the dog came here to live. Someone had dumped her out. 5 days later she had 5 puppies.
When the pups got about 6 weeks old, life in the back yard began to change. The cats moved to the front yard and
the raccoons and opossums that came regularly no longer came. This was a sad event. The summer before there
was a mama raccoon that came and let her 3 babies drink and play in a pan of water one hot dry summer day. The
possum may still come, but I have not seem him lately.
Now that the dogs took over the back yard, the cats had to make other arrangements. Tiger slept under the big oak
tree in the front yard, whiskers spent his time across the street and Violet made his home under a shed of my next
door neighbor. The next year I was told he would to go sit in the window of a family that lived across the ditch.
Violet would hear or see me when ever I went into the back yard. He would always call me, and I would call him.
He would jump the fence and walk through the ditch and climb over the neighbors fence, walk to a break in the
fence and then come in our front yard. At this same break in the fence sits a truck. Last summer Violet found out
that is he waited till the window was open, he could call me and I would always give him some food. He would sit
and call till I got up. Then he would meet me at the front door. I can't go out the back door that I don't think I will
hear him. I can't open my window and not remember him calling me. I can't drive in the driveway and not see him
waiting for me to give them all supper. I see him waiting patiently waiting on one of the trucks waiting for supper.
In the morning, if I go in the back yard, I think of him calling me. I keep thinking if I don't write this , it won't be
so.
His brother Tiger got ran over crossing the street. Tiger the piano playing cat. I think he could feel the sounds.
When he came in to visit, if he played the piano, meant he was ready to go back outside. Then there were two. The
only cat of Scruffy's litter that still here is Whiskers. I thought last year he had gone or gotten aids from 4 eyes,
the only cat he ever liked. His hair got so matted and he was so skinny. He was gone for about a week last fall, but
is back home now. He has no friends. He will let me pick him up sometimes but not often. Perhaps he was the one
of the family that missed his mother.
Violet I fear was taken by a wild dog in the ditch. I know no one has taken him in. He would not stand to be a
house cat. Perhaps if I open the window he will be there. Can it be that now there is only one of Scruffy's kittens
left? Perhaps if I keep writing it won't be true.