Felix the Cat

For the first year that Shawn and I were together we lived with his parents. The house is out in the country and strays are always getting dumped out there. You just never know when you're going to find some poor litter of kittens.

Shawn's mom always felt sorry for these animals, as any decent person would. At one point we counted 13 cats roaming the backyard.

One morning while was leaving for work he backed up...

over a cat.

It was a small kitten and his hind leg was obviously hurt. I took him to a veteranarian who said his hip was broken and there wasn't much I could do except keep him from moving around or trying to jump.

Since Shawn's sister's kids were always at the house we kept the cat, who we named Felix, upstairs in our bedroom so it wouldn't get messed with. (the kids are a bit of a rowdy bunch)

We placed cardboard in the corner of the room with a small litter box and dishes to keep Felix from exploring too much. Between work hours we spent night and day with this cat.

As Felix began to heal he discovered that he was able to climb everything.
Including Shawn.

If I sat at the desk, Felix would spread his tiny body across my shoulders like a pet rat. (I have a pic somewhere around here)

Felix would often claw at Shawn's pants, even if he were standing straight up. The cat would climb his way up Shawn's jeans, his shirt, and eventually make it to Shawn's shoulder where he would seem confused and not really no what to do. And if poor Shawn didn't hold back his T-shirt, Felix would try to dig his claws into Shawn's belly and keep right on going.

It came time to put Felix outside. He was just too much of a mess, too rambunctious, and spring was settling in his hormones. The middle child, Ali became quite attatched to this cat and renamed him upteen times.

Out of all the 13 cats, oddly enough, this runt with a bad hip became the biggest. Marge had gotten fed up with the cats since they were tearing into the air conditioner and just about everything else. She stopped feeding them so much, almost hoping they would go away on their own.

But Felix, ever the survivor, managed to just keep getting bigger! This cat must have weighed 25 pounds at least! And the poor thing let Ali do just about anything to him without reacting in any sort of violent way.

When we found our rental house, we had to leave Felix behind, who at the time had a name perfected by Ali that I cannot remember.

The huge cat (who was neither too skinny or too fat--it was all meat!) was happy there anyway.

Shawn's mother had had it with the cats finally. She claimed to have taken them in small groups and left them where they might be found or could find food.

I realize the cats were tearing up the underneath of the house and the A/C and whatnot, but I had no idea!

I would've taken Felix, at the very least in a nanosecond! Our landlord never came over, never! I would've taken the cats--all of them--to a shelter myself! Or I could've found them homes or something...

I asked about Felix, finally. Shawn's mom said she never could get a hold of him. When she was down to just a couple of cats to get rid of, Felix had just disapeared.

Of course, I myself always the pesismist, assumed the coyotes had gotten him in the long run.

He was a cool cat, though. Tension was thick in the house while we lived there and Felix took our heads to another place with his antics.

I do regret not taking him when we moved, but what can I do now?