Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Equal time for Smoky


More than one friend has told me it's not fair that our cat, Smoky, doesn't get face time on this blog. Poor Smoky is seriously outnumbered by dogs here. One of my problems is that the only time I see Smoky is when he wants breakfast or when he's running from a dog. I don't have enough hands to handle the camera when feeding the gang breakfast and Smoky runs too fast for me to capture him the rest of the time.


Smoky found us about a year ago. He and another kitten (who we assumed was a littermate) were dropped off near our house by yet another idiot who thinks it's OK to discard unwanted animals. We fed both kittens, but the littermate disappeared after a week (probably did not meet a happy end). Smoky stayed. He was timid at first and spent a lot of time under our storage shed, but soon he attached himself to Mr. P, following him around the yard and allowing himself to be admired and petted. I took him to the vet for shots and neutering and he became our official Outside Cat (we don't keep cats indoors any longer because of the paws-on-the-kitchen-counter issue).
This photo is of Smoky when he was a little guy. He's three times bigger now.


When Patch showed up last fall, she and Smoky became devoted to each other. Each had a crate full of blankets and toys in the garage. When Patch had the puppies, we moved her indoors until the puppies were weaned (we didn't fancy bottle-feeding 4 puppies if she ran off and never came back, which is what I probably would have done in her position). Smoky is very interested in the puppies (and they in him), but their idea of play is a bit rough for him. He feels that puppies are best viewed from the garage roof. When we see all 4 puppies looking skyward, we know they're not praying. They're looking at Smoky.

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