The Ghost of Daisy
A new member of our forum joined because she and her family were looking to move to Anna, and our forum is a great resource. As it turned out, they chose new construction in another nearby city, but during preparation for the move, they discovered that they would have to give up a cat :(
The message was posted on our board, and I clicked the link out of nothing more than idle curiosity, but what I saw took my breath away:
I replied that I was interested, but that I would require approval from my spouse first. When catttitude got home she said, "No." That is, before she saw the pictures herself. "When can we pick her up?"
The first day I showed up was for orientation. I met the family and 'Sneakie' the cat to ensure we were compatible. That family sure loved their cat, and I didn't want to have to take her away from them, but I felt that if it had to be done, I was the one to do it.
The next day drax0r and I drove out and visited with the family. I have a feeling we'll seeing more of them. Her husband works down the hall from us as it turns out, and her boys are just great - spent a lot of time with Sneakie. School's almost out here and I figure they can come up and see her when she gets settled in. I remember when drax0r had Daisy after we sold our house I went to see her once a week before we moved to STL.
The first night at my house was difficult. We had three kids sleeping over for a total of five kids under the age of 10 in the house, then there was a lightning storm. LOTS of noise. We quarantined Mleko in our room and kenneled the pug to give Sneakie run of the house. A couple of times I caught her circumnavigating the entire house in full low-crawl mode.
Then, about 0200 I saw her peeking through my office doors. She looked so much like Daisy it made my heart ache.
She doesn't come out much when everyone is home, and in fact hides extremely well. Not being able to find her one evening, I decided to check all of Daisy's old hiding places. Sure enough, there she was - under the computer rack. One evening I pulled in late after being away from the house for a couple of hours and saw the grey and white stray my wife feeds dart in front of my headlights as I pulled into our driveway. It was drizzling and I came in the house but couldn't find the cat. Anywhere. "OH NO!" Was that actually Sneakie I saw outside in the rain? I burst outside in the rain barefoot and shirtless, calling for the cat. I couldn't believe I'd already lost her, and I had no idea how I was going to explain this to the previous owner's kids. Despondent and upset, I came back inside and there she was in the foyer, just watching me. "Meow?"
She comes out more often now, when I'm reading to the children, when we sit for dinner. She pays the pug no attention whatsoever, and unlike drax0r's cat Azarel, who actively sought out Daisy to fight her, Sneakie and Mleko have chosen a path of non-violence toward each other. Its not going to be a problem.
Sure having a 3-year old cat in the house again is a handful (not as much as say, two newborn Bengals) but its nice to again hear the pitter-patter of little feet [in huge combat boots]. We're quickly becoming fast friends.
My son wants to name her, "Larry." WTF?