DecPhoMo 8

 

 

 Pets

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I grew up with a couple of dogs and a cat that my parents got as a wedding present.  I like animals; they seem to like me.  I have always liked cats a lot, and one did me a big favor once.

My Japanese wife and I got married here in the US but we went to Japan to live.  It was the first time I had been there – indeed, I had not been out of my country and culture before except for short forrays into Mexico or Canada.  Japan was very foreign to me.  I guess I was totally foreign to the family – her mom and dad and sister.  We got to the family house and gathered in the kitchen, sitting around the dinner table, me answering questions my wife translated from the Japanese, everyone tense, unfamiliar.

They had a big green tiger cat, one who was famous as being indifferent to visitors and very picky about his humans.  My acceptance into the family was cemented by the cat jumping into my lap, univited, and curling up and purring loudly.  They all gasped and my position was sealed.

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Here, 24 years later, I have been sharing my apartment with a black cat I call "Blacky":

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I got him as an eight week old kitten:

(yeah.  Even nine yeas ago, my beard had frost on it.  There’s a lot more now, and Blacky got bigger)

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He used to sleep in wierd positions:

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And he still likes to lick my toothbrush:

(HIS toothbrush, really.  When I found out he was licking mine, I said "yours!" and bought another one that I keep in a drawer)

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For years, he used the paper bag drawer as a place to sleep:

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He’s a good cat – the best I’ve ever had.

 

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