The white cat won't leave

		PAGE TWO OF THREE

The White Cat Who Stayed

We’d kept him inside for about ten days, afraid he’d either wander off, get lost or fall prey to the coyotes or foxes in the area. We’d also checked bulletin boards to see if anyone was missing a white, male cat.

Finally, after his repeated attempts to slip outside, we relented and let him out. About two hours later, we heard a fight. Cats make a surprising amount of noise for such small animals. We heard growls and screams and scuffling from under our house.

Not long afterward, Dumb Dumb wandered back inside, reeking of cat urine and covered in mud and blood. Wearing a smug expression, he tried to hop into bed with me and couldn’t understand why I kept pushing him away.

Feeding ham to a "ham" of a cat

The following morning, I decided to call the vet to make an appointment for DumbDumb.
The examination revealed that he was a young cat, just slightly over a year old. However, when I went to pick him up after surgery, the receptionist said they guessed he must have used up all of his nine lives during the time he lived on the streets.

News travels fast in a small town. One day, while my daughter Waverly was riding the school bus, she discovered DumbDumb had been quite a cat-about-town before we adopted him.
It seems he’d been hanging around a local car repair garage prior to his relocation to the arena. The people there had tried, unsuccessfully, to find him a home. One of my neighbours had been asked if she’d like him but she’d politely declined.

Comfortable on Waverly's lap

For whatever reason, DumbDumb decided to move from the repair garage to the arena. Maybe the food was better or maybe he was drawn by the people.

Charlie, the arena manager, said he’d seen DumbDumb hanging around the parking lot for weeks prior to our adopting him. Because DumbDumb was so friendly and so good-natured, people fed him tidbits and scraps of food. At first, Charlie thought DumbDumb must live nearby, especially when he disappeared for several weeks. It wasn’t until he showed up a second time that Charlie guessed he was a stray.

“He’s a smart cat,” Charlie told me. “He never tried to get inside the arena. He’d just sit near the door and wait. And if I was carrying garbage, he knew not to get in the way.”
DumbDumb learned some useful skills on the street, which he still uses on us. When he sees someone eating, he mews softly like a kitten, then sits up on his hind legs and wraps his front paws around the person’s wrist, tugging it down.

He also has a self-serve approach to food. He can open garbage can lids and when his bowl is empty, we’ve watched him tip over the kibble bag, gnaw a hole in it and spill the contents across the floor.






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