Charlie

Have I written about my cat Charlie yet? Well, excuse me if I repeat myself.

Last fall, my roommate/landlord/friend came home and sat me down and said that he had to ask me an important question. I immediately assumed the worst, that he was mad at me, that he wanted to kick me out or something. Instead, he said that there were two cats at his work (he works at a church), and they needed to find new homes for the cats. The cats loved each other, but they'd have to be separated unless we took them in - would that be OK with me?

I am a cat lady. I immediately said yes.

Since the day they arrived, Charlie and Floyd have taken over the household with preciousness and hilarity and the occasional annoyances of having two very affectionate, very crazy, very energetic cats around. Both cats are around 2 years old - Floyd is slim and long and is tan with a hint of grey. Charlie is small and round and has a black and white cow pattern, and is often mistaken for a lady cat. Both cats were born outside.

So, as the weather gets warmer, we've been letting the cats back outside. Both cats have tags with their names and my phone number, and Charlie has an extra tag which reads, "I'm probably not lost. Con Artist Extraordinaire." The reason why is that, within a week of our letting the cats outside for the first time (and Floyd wasn't into it at first, so it was mostly Charlie being outside), two different neighbors assumed he was lost and took him in. At first I thought, "Oh, so sweet that our neighbors care so much for animals!"

But then, even after the tags were purchased, people continued to call about Charlie. They would flip right past the tag that says he's probably NOT lost, find the tag with his name and my phone number, and call, call, call. I get a call about Charlie almost every other day, and I vacillate between being touched at how concerned people are and being annoyed that no one can be bothered to read the first tag.

In the last few days, the phone calls have gotten more interesting. Now, Floyd enjoys the outdoors a lot more than he did when we started letting him out, but he stays pretty close to home. He is playful and creative enough to make his own fun outside, and he's pretty wary of humans he doesn't know. Charlie is another story entirely. Though he was born feral, he is all about the humans - more specifically, he's all about the attention humans can lavish on him. So he goes to seek humans out. He roams pretty far, and he's not at all shy about being picked up, or jumping into someone's lap, or their vehicle.

On Thursday, I got a call from a bar around the corner, informing me that Charlie had just walked in. I walked around the corner and into the bar, and I found Charlie giving himself a bath while everyone in the bar watched. Seriously. Everyone was so tickled at the nerve of this cat!

On Friday, I got three phone calls from Charlie - one from a man who wondered if Charlie was fine outside, one from a man who worked in a restaurant - he said that Charlie had jumped up into the kitchen window and was meowing at all of the workers. The final call was from another bar. Again, Charlie just waltzed on in and made himself at home.

Everyone has been super friendly about Charlie (I, of course, have been embarrassed), and now he's sort of a mini-celebrity in our neighborhood. There are a lot of bars here, and I wonder how many he'll stroll into this summer.

SO. If you're in a bar and you see a round black and white cat with two little red heart tags hanging off of his blue collar, I'm sure I'll be hearing from you. I hope you're not allergic.

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Comments

A Fuss said…
I think Charlie has a drinking problem.

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