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There is no such thing as a stray cat. Ten years ago we had a cat that was roaming the neighborhood. He had a reputation for showing up at mealtime. The lady down the road said he would just stroll in to her kitchen and make himself at home. We called him BUSTER. We used to feed him out by the driveway. He would sit on top of the car to eat and then move along on his "route". Back in those days we had four dogs and six or seven cats. One day the dogs were raising a ruckus in the yard. They kept barking at something out in the woods. Upon investigation, we found Buster. He had been run over by one of the many speeding cars that fly by on our road. His back legs and tail had been crushed. Buster had crawled off to die.
So we did what anybody would do, we took Buster to the vet and asked them to save Buster. They did the best that they could to help him. One leg was saved. The other was removed. Eventually the tip of his tail simply fell off. Following a long recovery period, Buster became one of ours. For the next ten years we had the joy of Buster in our lives!
He was a cat with many endearing qualities. He got around rather well on his three legs. Whenever we made a fire in the fireplace, Buster would head over and drape himself over one of us and purr. He loved the heat! Buster also had an ornery streak. He was the particular nemesis of our cat Squeaky. They were hissing cousins for years! Buster loved to doze out on the bench in the back yard. During his waking moments he liked to hide in the bushes and supervise the activities of the other cats. Another favorite pastime was lurking under the birdfeeder. Buster brought us tremendous joy!
Wednesday night we noticed that Buster was having some difficulty breathing. Yesterday, Buster died. He was out in the bushes that he loved so much. Squeaky maintained a vigil over Buster as he faded away. Last night we buried Buster out in the forest. We have some wonderful memories of our sweet boy. And somewhere, in a drawer, I have the end of his tail.
Posted by Vick Mickunas on 7/23/04; 12:10:06 PM
from the dept.
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