Molly and Wonder Kitty
I have never been able to warm up to cats. It took me half my life to like dogs, and now it would be hard to live without one. My husband is also anti-cat, but he has a long history with dogs when he was a kid and lived upstate New York. Every year, his two dogs had a litter of puppies. These two dogs, with the imaginative names of Blacky and Brownie, presented my husband with the arduous task of naming the puppies. Therefore, the last litter he remembered naming was after the players on the Brooklyn Dodgers team. Of course, as they gave the pups away, the new owners would change the names. After all, who would want a dog named PeeWee Reis?
My son and daughter were also dog people, but each had a mate who liked cats. Like his parents, my son didn’t particularly like cats, and when the cats died, the family returned to just dogs.
My daughter, though, warmed up to felines. Then again, she learned to love cats because of her dog!
Molly was originally my dog. She was intelligent and affectionate. I couldn’t live with her, as I would sneeze and be stuffed up constantly. I've never had that reaction to another dog. My daughter inherited her. At the same time, my son-in-law came with cats! They quickly became a blended family.
The two cats who now lived in the house with Molly were Matt and Zoey. Another cat took up residence on the front porch and eventually, on a very cold winter day, decided to move in. Her name was Shadow.
Matt was and is a large, fat cat. He is not particularly friendly, but for some reason, he likes me. Zoey was a tortoiseshell, a very petite lady. The dog and cats got along okay, staying out of each other's way. Molly had a thick coat of reddish/brown hair. For some reason, when my daughter would take Molly on her daily walk, a strange cat would show up and walk with them. This male cat had the same coloring as the dog. He had no identification. Eventually, Nero, now named, became part of the family and was attached to Molly. It was uncanny. Nero made Molly’s home his home, and they were inseparable. He went on every walk that Molly took.
Zoey and Matt didn’t mind, and for years, everyone got along. However, all good things come to an end. Shadow passed away, and then Molly. When Molly died, Nero seemed to mourn for a while, and then Nero disappeared! My daughter found him; he had taken up residence with another family with a dog! So, for a brief time, the household had only two cats. Zoey and Matt were indoor cats, but occasionally, they ventured outside. Matt never went far at all, but Zoey took off one day. After five days or so, my son-in-law and daughter were convinced that she was dead. Our neighborhoods have a lot of birds of prey, and Zoey was very tiny.
My daughter and son-in-law had to leave for about seven days, and I was put in charge of feeding the cats and ensuring they had whatever they needed. We live only 8 minutes apart, and I only had Matt to think about. I would show up each day to make sure he had food and water, and I would try to play with him a little, but he wasn’t precisely the playful type.
I remember distinctly that on the fifth day of Matt duty, I was on the phone with my daughter when, suddenly, walking through the pet door as if nothing had happened, Zoey made a grand entrance. I yelled,“ Zoey,” and the cat looked at me as if to say, “YOU GOT ANYTHING TO EAT?”
My son-in-law heard me yell, “Zoey,” and said, “No way!” He told me to take a picture and send it to him. Even with the proof, he was still unsure that the kitty that walked in was HIS Zoey.
I don’t remember the exact timeline, but eventually, beautiful petite Zoey passed away.
It’s been a few years, but Matt is still around, along with the new cat Petey and the new dog Katie at my daughter’s house and my new dog Evie at mine.
Evie and Katie are BFFs, and Petey has taken a liking to Evie. Matt still plops his large body in everyone’s way and dares the other animals to try to go around him.
