Page 9 from the book

Hunter hangs around in strange places. Sometimes he is curled up in the bathroom sink or jumps up on the kitchen stove, then to the top of the refrigerator, and then onto the top of the kitchen cabinets and stares down at me washing dishes.

In winter I cover the firewood with a tarp to keep the rain and snow away and Hunter crawls under the tarp and if one didn’t know better they’d think there was a ghost under the tarp because the surface moves as he crawls along.

When I come back from the store shopping if he is in the driveway he ambles across like an old man and I must blow the horn to chase him out of the way or if he is close by when I come home I’ll blow the horn and he runs up and sits at the front door waiting for it to open then after five minutes he sits by the front door crying to go out.

Hunter and catnip

Have a high school friend who said “feral cats do not become housebroken cats” but that’s not a 100% true. Another friend sent Hunter a Christmas present. Catnip in one of those colorful gift bags which I left on the steps. After two weeks Hunter got nosey because when I came down the stairs there was catnip all over the steps so I sat on the steps and watched him roll in it, taste it, and then he rolled off the step. I cleaned it up and put the bag back on the step.

A couple of days later a bigger mess. So I ordered some catnip on E-Bay and when it came I put the plastic bag on the kitchen counter. I was reading at the table and Hunter jumped up then put his nose in the air and was sniffing and before I could grab the bag he tried to jump over to the counter and using a chair back as a spring because the counter was 5 feet from the table, and he landed on the floor. I put the bag on the floor and he rolled all around it, held it between his paws, licked the bag and everything a cat would do when intoxicated by catnip. I put it in a draw because I’d hate for him to open that bag. Every time I am reading at the table I get out the bag and put it on the floor and watch foolish Hunter rolling around and mugging it. He is housebroken in that sense but still prefers to be outside.

Hunter's eating habits.

Hunter got tired of the Salmon and Mackerel I was feeding him at lunch, which the vet said was bad for him and he also stopped snacking on the cheese slices at night and he will not eat canned cat food so I adapted. I buy the small cans of White Albacore tuna in water for myself so one day I opened a can for Hunter and put it into a bowl. He ate it like it was his last meal. Nothing dainty about his eating habits. Actually when he eats his dry food sometimes he gobbles so much up sometimes he throws it right back up and I must clean up his mess.

I also decided to get some turkey lunch meat since he will not eat the meat from a turkey and today I put down three thin slices all broken up and said to myself, “I bet he doesn’t eat it all” and by golly he proved me wrong. I guess life was hard for him when he was a wild kitten, finding food was hard so when I present good food to him he gobbles it right down. He even came by later in the day wondering if I was going to put out more lunch meat by sitting by the empty dish. His belly is beginning to bulge a bit more. He also daintily licked off my turkey plate.

Hunter and his mice.

One night I was reading at the kitchen table and Hunter came down the stairs crying, he caught a mouse, a very fast mouse, and he watches it tear around the kitchen and it goes into the living room and Hunter rambles in after it then I hear him scurrying about, knocking over things, and comes back crying holding the mouse and then drops it on the kitchen floor again and it scurries back into the living room and Hunter goes after it and catches it and plays with it while lying on the floor.

Then he jumps up backwards, I guess the mouse tried to run underneath him, he laid down then jumped up again and then I saw him jump up on all fours and turn and run, but he didn’t come back with the mouse. I don’t have a clue where it is hiding. Every now and then I hear Hunter scurrying about, I figure he is chasing the mouse, then a few days later he comes crying into the kitchen carry the same? mouse, and he drops it and it takes off for the living room again with Hunter close behind. I followed him in and the dumb mouse again tried to crawl underneath Hunter so he jumps up and turns to see where it is going, and then I accidentally dropped a book on the mouse. Ooophs.

Colo. cat, missing 5 years, is found on NYC street

NEW YORK (AP) — A calico cat named Willow, who disappeared from a home near the Rocky Mountains five years ago, was found Wednesday on a Manhattan street and will soon be returned to a family in which two of the three kids and one of the two dogs may remember her.

How she got to New York, nearly 1,800 miles away, and the kind of life she lived in the city are mysteries.

But thanks to a microchip implanted when she was a kitten, Willow will be reunited in Colorado with her owners, who had long ago given up hope.

"To be honest, there are tons of coyotes around here, and owls," said Jamie Squires, of Boulder. "She was just a little thing, five and a half pounds. We put out the 'Lost Cat' posters and the Craigslist thing, but we actually thought she'd been eaten by coyotes."

Squires and her husband, Chris, were "shocked and astounded" when they got a call Wednesday from Animal Care & Control, which runs New York City's animal rescue and shelter system.

Willow had been found on East 20th Street by a man who took her to a shelter.

"My husband said, 'Don't say anything to the kids yet. We have to make sure,'" Squires said. "But then we saw the picture, and it was Willow. It's been so long."

ACC Executive Director Julie Bank said a scanner found the microchip that led to the Squires family.

"All our pets are microchipped," Squires said. "If I could microchip my kids, I would."

The children are 17, 10 and 3 years old, so the older two remember Willow, Squires said. As for the 3-year-old, "She saw the photo and said, 'She's a pretty cat.'"

The Squireses also have a yellow Labrador named Roscoe, who knew Willow, and an English mastiff named Zoe.

"We had another dog back then, too, and I remember that Willow would lie with them as they all waited to be fed," Squires said. "She thought she was a dog."

Squires said Willow escaped in late 2006 or early 2007 when contractors left a door open during a home renovation.

Since then, the family had moved about 10 miles from Broomfield to Boulder, but it kept its address current with the microchip company.

Bank recommended that all pet owners use microchips.

She said Willow, who now weighs 7 pounds, is healthy and well-mannered and probably has not spent her life on the mean streets of Manhattan. But there are no clues about her trip east or anything else in the five years she's been missing.

Squires seemed a bit worried about a possible New York state of mind.

"I don't know what kind of life she's had, so I don't know what her personality will be like," she said. When Willow disappeared, she said, "She was a really cool cat, really sweet."

The ACC and the Squireses were trying to arrange for transportation back to Colorado and health certificates and said it might be two weeks before the reunion. Willow may spend some time with a foster family in New York.

"The kids can't wait to see her," Squires said. "And we still have her little Christmas stocking"

Hunter and his massages.

I know how much Hunter likes a massage so when I was on E-Bay I noticed a pet brush, that fits over your hand and you slip your fingers into finger loops so I ordered two and they came in the mail and I opened the package because Hunter was roaming about and I started brushing him and while I was brushing him he turns around and looks at me with a smile on his face saying, “oh, oh, oh, oh Dad that feels sooooooo good.” He walked into the house and was snacking on his dry food and I continued brushing him and he loved every minute of it. He lifts his head at an angle and soaks it in, aahh and his body sinks lower and lower.

Hunter and another visit to the vet.

Hunter went to the vet’s again. He’s been lethargic for a few days and not eating his wet food and then Sunday he didn’t attempt to eat the tuna in water I put out. Unfortunately I got a large bill from the vet and he said “he’s healthy” yes he gained 1 ½ pounds in 3 months so I guess he is. He can be a chore to pick up and even worse when I tried to put him in the animal carrier. Spreads his back feet far and wide thinking I cannot push him in, “I am not going into this thing peacefully Dad,” then he turns around and comes right back out.

Cried all the way over and back and this time the orange tiger cat was there but there was also a kitten with large paws who came and sniffed Hunter out and Hunter just stared at it. The vet took some blood from Hunter and a sample will be flown to NJ and will have the test results back in the morning by eight o’clock. He’s laying on the floor by my desk so I’ll presume he has forgiven me about his earlier misery at my hands. I’ve waited to post because I wanted the feedback from the test which proved to be negative. The vet told me that I shouldn’t feed him fish because it could cause a urinary trac infection and that I shouldn’t offer him milk. I told Hunter and he said “Dad is the vet trying to starve me?” “I could waste away to nothing”