Smudge

I think my cat is dead. No one has seen him in about a week. He is primarily an outside cat. But he always hangs around the house and every so often comes in the garage where his food is. We definitely see him every day. I'm pretty sure something got him. It makes me sad because he was such a special cat. He is the reason I like cats. Really it was easy to love him. I was never good at picking up and holding cats and so they would never let me hold them. But he doesn't care how you pick him up. He is so affectionate. What I love most about him is that he was always content no matter what. He never got jealous if there was another pet around. But he loved attention.

When he used to sleep in my bed with me, he would always crack me up...if I was lying on my stomach, he would lay longways on my back...if I was on my side, he would spoon with me with his head on the pillow. And during the day, his favorite place to sleep was the bathroom sink.

Smudge was a beast. He did have a stomach that swung rather low to the ground but other than that, he was muscle. I've seen him jump up in the air and catch a bird. He's always bringing me random body parts of what he's just killed (usually the intestines and half of the skull).

If you were outside, he would come to you. He loved people. Though, I have to say, we didn't give him too much attention. But he's stuck around for the last 7 years. I'm not sure how old he is (was). He was full grown when we found him. One day Neil and I were driving down the road in our neighborhood and Neil had to slam on his brakes to not hit him. That's how he got his name--he was almost a "smudge" on the road. Anyway, once the truck was stopped, Smudge walked over to the driver door, Neil opened it, and he jumped up on Neil's lap. So then we took him home. That's right, we might have stolen him from one of our neighbors. But hey, there was no collar on him and he was not de-clawed. Plus there are always strays around our neighborhood, with all the woods and everything. My brother once found a litter of kittens in a tree in our back woods. One of them fell out of the tree at that moment and my brother's friend caught it--called him Lucky. Anyway, if there was no collar then he was not claimed, so I guess that's how I rationalized it all these years. Also he was always free to go back down the road where we found him if he wanted.

So maybe that's where he is. But I'm pretty sure he's dead. There's coyotes, racoons, wild turkeys (with claws), possums--anything could have gotten him. I just hope it was a quick death with no suffering. Oh, I love(d) that cat. Who knows, maybe he's still out there and will be back soon. But lets be realistic--that's probably not the case.

Neil, don't make fun of me for writing a blog about an animal.