Our Non-human Companions

Yes, congratulations!

Congrats Marko! Looks like he already has his "spot" picked out

Anybody here have a pet squirrel?
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/when-...ket-newtab

Many years ago we adopted a cat from the local shelter. They got him as a stray, and named him Little Romeo because he was very affectionate, but we quickly shortened it to Romeo. Over the years he answered to many names since I have a habit of coming up with alternative names for the people and pets I'm attached to. Regardless, he was the best cat ever! We only paid $25 to adopt him because he was all black, but he became priceless to us.

Initially we lived outside a park in the city. We tried to keep him indoors when we first got him, but he was having none of that - he had to go outside. After much struggling with it, we let him have his way. He stayed close to the house and the park and would approach anyone in the park, so we got many calls of, 'We have your cat'. We finally put a note on his tags saying, 'If you find him around the park, he is home and will be fine.' He was pretty famous there - all the kids loved him.

Then we moved to a larger place in the county. So we had the same challenge again: try and keep him inside, or let him out. The city had few predators and he was never in the road, so he was relatively safe. That was not the case at our new place. We were surrounded by eagles, owls, hawks, and mostly...coyotes. So we tried to keep him inside again, and again we were unsuccessful.

He absolutely loved this place. He had acres to roam. Since we keep ducks, he was very useful as a mouser. Most days you'd see him patrolling his property along the split rail fence or basking in the sun on the gravel.

Still, we knew we were playing with fire.

A few months ago it seems like the inevitable happened. We don't know for sure what happened, because we never found any trace of him, but he just didn't come home one evening. Or the next, or the next. I guess there's still a very slim chance that he's alive, but that's very unlikely.

So, this is an ode to Romeo, aka Cat, cat-pong, Rome-rome, stinky cat, and many other names....but who will always be the best cat in the world.

My heart goes out to you, Yohann (yohannrjm). Beautiful cat and a beautiful story. He looks like quite the character and sounded like quite the charmer!

Thanks, MaineYooper! He was cute, but was really hard to photograph, because he was such a deep black. The best part about him was that he was independent, but affectionate.....so he would come over and hang out on your lap for a bit, but then would go do his own thing. He was not clingy. 

He also bullied the our dog, Petey. The dog has been pretty happy for the last several months since he is currently an only animal and everyone has focused on him. That is about to change, because we'll be getting another cat. I resisted the calls for us to get one for a long time, but gave in recently.  We pick him up on Wednesday. And so ends the dog's period of unalloyed happiness.

yohannrjm  it sounds like Romeo was a great cat, and I’m not a cat person but I certainly understand the attachment people have with their cats.

Archie gets bigger every day. 15 weeks old now 

Yohann, I'm so sorry for your loss. What a shame! I'm not a cat person, but he sounds like he was a good cat.

We live in rural Maine and we have loads of predators also. The question isn't if the cat allowed to roam will be taken, but how long will it take? Our neighbor used to have cats, but I think she grew tired of being in the "cat of the month club".

Thanks, MaineYooper! He was cute, but was really hard to photograph, because he was such a deep black. The best part about him was that he was independent, but affectionate.....so he would come over and hang out on your lap for a bit, but then would go do his own thing. He was not clingy. 

He also bullied the our dog, Petey. The dog has been pretty happy for the last several months since he is currently an only animal and everyone has focused on him. That is about to change, because we'll be getting another cat. I resisted the calls for us to get one for a long time, but gave in recently.  We pick him up on Wednesday. And so ends the dog's period of unalloyed happiness.

We expect some photos soon! Being adopted is a great way to start the new year right!