The "tail' of Fuzzybutt

Long ago (ok, not so long ago - 7 years or so) in a land far far away (well, not so far away either, only about 15 miles), an adorable fluffy yellow kitten was born. So adorable that when we were visiting the farm where he was born, we ended up bringing him home. The owners were going on vacation and were worried about some other animal or tomcat getting him while they were away. And of course, we're suckers and fell for it. He was pretty darn cute and our son, Joe always wanted a long haired yellow cat. Joe said he would take him with him when he moved out so what is the longest we would have him, maybe a year? (Note- Fuzzy has never went to live with Joe. Joe has lived on his own for five years and now has a different cat -- hmmm)

Fuzzy joined another kitten named Race Cat. They were the best of buddies. They played alot and were constantly curled up together.


Perfect right? Not so much.
As Fuzzy grew so did his hair and he constantly groomed himself. You know a cat's got to look their best. You never know who might stop by to see you. The grooming wasn't a problem in itself. I mean, who doesn't want a clean cat, right? But he puked hairballs every day. No matter how much anti-hairball medicine we gave him, he still puked up hairballs constantly!
Add that to the fact that as Fuzzy walked through the house, it was like watching PigPen from the Peanuts, the hair just flew off him kind of like PigPens dust cloud. Well, it wasn't long and poor Fuzzy was delegated to the garage.

Then one day Barb came to the house, saw Fuzzy and wanted to take him home. She had lots of cats and thought Fuzzy would fit right in. Well, Fuzzy had other ideas.
To start with, he's not real fond of car rides, so he yowled this awful pitiful yowl all the way to Barb's house.
By now, the guilt is setting in for me that I'm giving poor lovable Fuzzy away. We sat on Barb's front porch for a few minutes with Fuzzy in the cage hissing at her other cats. Time for me to leave came and as I'm driving out, there stood Fuzzy on his back legs with his front feet on the cage bars, watching me drive away with the saddest expression I have seen on a cat. Can cat's have an expression? A really sorrowful one! I felt terrible. It felt like leaving one of my kids.

After I left(with Fuzzy still in the cage), Barb went in the house to get him some water. When she came out, the cage door was open and Fuzzy was gone! Fuzzy must have been Houdini's cat in his previous life!
Barb told us what happened at church that night. So, after church, off we went to Barb's house to wander around in the dark trying to find FuzzyButt. No luck.
For the next month, we would occasionally drive out by her house in hopes of seeing him somewhere. Still no signs of Fuzzy. We were giving up hope. How could he possibly defend himself(he was declawed)in the wilds of the Northern Illinois farm country? How could he ward off any predators? The guilt had overtaken us for giving him away. We were sure he was laying dead somewhere, killed by coyotes or hit on the road. One night, about 6 weeks later, we received a very excited call from Barb that she thought she found "our boy."
We jumped in the truck and found him at Barb's neighbor's horse farm living in the lap of luxury. When we saw him, he was being fed from their kitchen counter! (Side note - cats on the counter, a personal pet peeve of mine)
They weren't exactly looking to keep him and we sure couldn't bear to take him back to Barb's again, so home with us he came.

He seemed awfully happy to be home. He went directly to the food dish! We tried the indoor thing but it was "hair and puke" all over again.
So back to the garage Fuzzy went. He's been a garage cat ever since and likes it. I know this because he told me so the other day. Really, he did, uh huh.
He follows Dan around as he works outside. He protect the perimeter from neighboring tomcats. He chases butterflies and bugs. But the best part of all(NOT) is he brings us gifts and lays them on the doormat almost everyday. Nothing says "welcome" quite like a dead bird or gopher, don't you agree? His offerings are quite amazing. Remember, Fuzzy is declawed! We think he "Fuzzy hugs" them to death.
Most of time though, he just lays around and obeys this sign. Oh, to have a cat's life...