THBBM - Rock Cake Sugar Sugar

Rock Cake Sugar Sugar
I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together...
3-7-03

See, I had 4 indoor cats.

Four over-pampered, spoiled rotten, won't crap in the litter box if looks funny and there's a perfectly good floor waiting to be redecorated, always underfoot, where's my damn food, please help yourself to some shedded hair with your oxygen - indoor cats.

I loved 'em anyways, but I also knew that if they ever got put outside, there would always be an adjustment period that might be a problem. Having them outside would make things easier on everybody, but the last thing I wanted was to lose them or have them get hit by a car or something. Eventually though there was really no other choice; just too many little feet for our little home to bear.

For a while it was rough... because you could tell they all hated it, and didn't really know what to do. Eventually though, the boundless freedom and Jack London-ness of it all took hold of them and it became something I think they actually preferred. They'd roam the area during the day, show up at the back porch for dinner, and then sleep under the stars...

Then one night, 3 of them disappeared.

Whether they were taken, or they just took off - I don't know. One day they were there, a part of my life, and the next they were just... gone.

It still bothers me to this day, the not knowing.

Sometimes there's really nothing harder than the silence.

The one that's still with us, though... is an interesting case.

Of all my spoiled cats, Biskit made the transition the worst.

Like Ginger on the Island - it always seemed that Biskit was waiting for her butler to show up, hand her an evian and make it all better. Even though at heart she is just a street cat we found in some pet shop at strip mall in Tallahassee, Florida, she's always been prissy, picky about food, and particular about being held.

You know... she's a cat.

It's been almost a year now, and it seems like Biskit is adjusting, even without her former companions around. In fact, it seemed like recently she was maybe starting to really enjoy being an outside cat. Sleeping on the car, chasing birds; stuff she could never really do on "the inside." And sure, maybe her coat did look a little ragged, and her appetite wasn't always what it had been...

But I really didn't think too much of it.

until I saw this picture.