Southwest Sierra #120 – Cats, Part 2

Not long after we moved to The Hope House, a little tortoise shell cat started hanging out on the enclosed back porch where Rolly ate. She was one of those cats that is so starved for affection that it runs under your feet every chance it gets, trying to rub against your legs. Annoying and dangerous! When she didn’t leave for a few weeks, I told David that I would see about taking her to the pound, since we already had a cat and I (thought) that I knew how he felt about cats. His response: “Go ahead and make an appointment to get her spayed”. So, this very small and annoying cat moved in on the back porch with the original name of “Kitty”. She was not allowed in the house.

Kitty had resided with us for a couple of years when Wyatt and I made a trip to Southern California to visit relatives. It was summertime and were gone for about ten days. When we got back, I noticed that Kitty wasn’t doing her annoying thing on the back porch. I asked David if he’d seen her since we’d left and he said: “Not for a while”. I went on the back porch and did my high-pitched kittykittykitty call. I then heard a very quiet “meow”. After a few shorter kitty calls with her answering each time, I zoned in on a two-drawer dresser. I knew immediately what had happened. We keep electrical wires and phone cords and such in the top drawer and work gloves in the bottom drawer. I pulled open the bottom drawer and there was Kitty in a deplorable state. She was practically bald. Her fur was now in piles on top of the gloves, and she was very thin. I immediately lifted her onto the counter near the water dish. I was surprised when she asked for some pets. She had her priorities! After a few pets, she went to the water dish and drank and drank and drank. Then she ate a small amount of cat food. Eventually her hair grew back, and she was fine for several years until one-day she vanished as cats in Alleghany often do. The hunter becomes the hunted.

We don’t know how long Kitty was in that drawer. I had heard that cats evolved in the desert and can go up to a week without water. I Googled how many days a cat can survive without water, and most sources say 3 to 4 days. According to my online research the earliest evidence of a domestic cat was found in a neolithic cave on the island of Cyprus, dated to 7,500 -7,200 BC. It is assumed that the Neolithic inhabitants of Cyprus brought cats from the mainland (Middle East) because there is no evidence of mammals evolving on the island.

While doing my cat research I also looked up the average life-expectancy of domestic cats. Currently it is pegged at about 13 years. Rolly Polly [that’s how we spelled it] beat the odds but by the time he was 19 years old, he was looking pretty rough. I had recently read a magazine article in a doctor’s waiting room about talking to your pets. The article mentioned a woman who traveled for work and who owned an African Gray Parrot. Whenever she got back from a work trip she would be greeted by a bald parrot. The bird pulled out its feathers whenever she was gone (a sign of stress). Somebody told the woman to explain the duration of her next trip to the parrot. Before she left, she held a calendar in front of the parrot and showed it exactly when she would be home. When she got back from that trip, the parrot had not pulled out its feathers! On subsequent trips she continued to tell the parrot when she would return and it never plucked out its feathers again.

We were getting ready for a trip away and I was worried about Rolly. I decided to give him a talk: “Rolly, you’re looking pretty rough and we need to leave soon. We’ll be gone for about a month, and it would be hard on Bob and Vickie (the cat sitters) if you die on their watch. You’ve had a very long life, and it is ok to let go. I want to be here for you when you die.” The next day Rolly refused food or water. This went on for four or five days, until finally he died in his favorite sunny spot on the upstairs bed. I was heartbroken but also grateful that he didn’t die alone.

A year or two earlier, our neighbor Leslie Baker Sr. had given us a potted apple tree that he started from seed. The mother tree was located at the old Lessig place on Main Street and has since died. We planted Rolly’s corpse under the apple tree at the edge of the yard and took our trip to Butte Montana. A day or two after arriving, we went to hear one of our favorite bands Mountain Moongrass at the old train depot. They played the Bob Will’s song: “Roly Poly” and I sat there sobbing for the duration of the song. Rolly’s little apple tree is bearing fruit for the first time this year.

Roly Poly

by Bob Wills

Roly Poly eatin’ corn and ‘taters

Hungry every minute of the day

Roly Poly Gnawin’ on a biscuit

As long as he can chew it, it’s okay.

He can eat an apple pie

And never even bat his eye

He likes everything from soup to hay

Roly Poly daddy’s little fatty

Bet he’s gonna be a man some day.

Roly Poly scrambled eggs for breakfast

Bread and jelly twenty times a day

Roly Poly eats a hearty dinner

It takes a lot of strength to run and play.

Pulls up weeds and does the chores

And runs both ways to all the stores

He works up an appetite that way

Roly Poly daddy’s little fatty

Bet he’s gonna be a man some day