My cat Beelzebub was Charlie's bestie. Charlie shadowed Bubba for several years. He adored Bubba. I think it's probable Bubba was the only cat Charlie ever met outside his immediate family (mother and littermates). I know cats can wander amazing distances but I'm not sure just how far Charlie ever ambled because cats are not nearly as common up here on The Rock as they were a few decades ago. Back in the '70s the only neighbors who did not have cats were the households with inhabitants severely allergic to cat dander, like the several of the S.O.'s cousins. Now the people who do have pet cats are the exception. No active farms around either so no barn cats. Lots of dogs, but very few felines. Given how much time Charlie spent hanging around our house over the course of several years, I don't think Mr. Cribbs ever succeeded in finding any other examples of Felis domestica.
In any case, the first time we saw Charlie he was still kittenish. He was probably about 8 months old at the time and had the most amazing tail. He's a long haired cat so of course his tail was fluffy. Nothing notable about that except there seemed to be enough fluff for multiple cats, not just one. It was like he was a 5 pound cat with a 20 pound tail. He's still fluffy, but the tail is more in proportion with the rest of him now.
Charlie apparently wandered over the hill when he got old enough to want to explore beyond his front yard and realized Bubba existed. Cats are surprisingly social. Feral cats will form colonies. Even unneutered males get along with a lot less fighting than one would assume. Charlie met Bubba and it was like, Dude! Once Charlie and Bubba became best buds, Charlie hung out at our house a lot. There were times when it seemed like Charlie was on the porch every day and other times several weeks would go by without him coming around.
Then Charlie's human experienced a CVA severe enough to put him in a nursing home. Family members were making sure the cat got fed, but no one was living in the house. Charlie actually likes people so it was not a good situation for him. I talked with one of the neighbor's adult daughters about rehoming Charlie. The Plan was to make sure Mr. Cribbs was up to date on shots and healthy in general and then place him for adoption. We'd just foster him for awhile.
Right. And pigs will fly. Mr. Cribbs obviously isn't going anywhere The little orange bastard has decided we belong to him and he's not likely to change his mind, not when being an orange cat means he's got rather limited neural processing capacity to begin with.
I know there are a lot of jokes about orange cats not being the brightest but I am wondering if the jokes are true. Charlie is the first cat we've had that can't figure out how a pet door works. We put a cat door into the bathroom door because in an RV the best place for a litter box is in the bathtub. The cat door is to provide access for the cat but still allow the bathroom door to be closed so the cat box odor isn't quite as noticeable. Bubba had no problem with cat doors. Charlie does. We keep shoving him back and forth through the door but he still hasn't figured out he can push it open himself. I guess his one brain cell really is fried.
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