In another thread, I promised (or threatened, depending on your point of view)
to tell the story of how my relatively new kitten Minnie changed my mind about
not really wanting a pet - so, here goes...

Why didn't I want another pet at the time? About fifteen years ago, I had a cat
named Goldie, a male orange tabby who was, to make a long story shorter, the
coolest cat I'd ever seen - and I've seen my share. Then one morning I left for
work and saw him lying dead on the shoulder of the road about fifty feet from
the driveway. He'd gotten outside during the night and been struck and killed by
a passing vehicle. It was obvious he'd been on the shoulder of the road and not
in the driving lane when he was hit, so whoever killed him deliberately swerved
off the road onto the shoulder to do so. I'd like to spend ten minutes alone in
a locked room with the driver of that vehicle.

I never wanted another pet after that because (a) I always felt no other pet
could ever replace him in my eyes - Goldie set the bar way too high in that
regard - and (b) I'm still deeply heartbroken even to this day when I think
about how I lost him. I moved here at the beginning of June and twice since then
I'd turned down offers of cats. But then a week or so before Halloween, I got a
call from someone who was about to move someplace that doesn't allow pets, and
either I took this kitten or she went to an animal shelter. Knowing what happens
to animals at shelters if they aren't adopted after a certain time, I agreed to
take her in - but only until I found someone else to take her permanently.

So, a few days later, the previous owner brought Minnie over, stayed for an hour
or so and told me what she could about the kitten's past history. I learned that
the kitten had been taken in from out on somebody's front porch - no telling if
she'd been a "stray" before that, or run away, or had been abandoned - but that
woman's five-year old son had subsequently been basically been caught red handed
trying to drown the kitty in the toilet, so the kitty had ended up with a second
new owner...the one who had just left her behind (perhaps not for the first
time) at the end of a three-hour bus trip on a chilly and rainy day in late
October, taking the cat carrier she'd transported the kitten in with her as she
departed out the back door, never to return again.

The kitten just sat there on my kitchen floor staring at the door briefly, then
looked up expectantly at me. I'm sure she understood that she had just been
dumped here and was now looking at her third human in four months, not to
mention the first of those who happened to be a man. To say that I felt sorry
for her at that moment would be a major understatement, so I scooped her up,
carried her into the dining room, sat down in my computer chair, and put her
down in front of me on the table. She promptly put her back end down and sat
there facing me with her front legs holding her up and I began petting her,
which she permitted with zero fuss, while I spoke to her quietly in an effort to
reassure her that everything would be alright.

After about five minutes us getting to know each other, her little motor fired
up, and I moved my face closer to hers and whispered, "Good girl," I said. "At
least now I know you CAN purr. That's a start." Whereupon she stood up on all
fours, leaned forward and stretched out her neck to close the remaining distance
between my face and hers, continued purring as loudly as a kitten possibly can,
and started gently licking my nose...and I decided then and there that although
I'll forever miss Goldie and still feel I'll probably never have another pet who
can ever even hold a candle to him, this adorable little creature standing here
in front of me had just at least earned the chance to take her best shot at it.

John D. Kasupski
Niagara Falls, NY

P.S. - I noted elsewhere in this newsgroup that I've only had Minnie since
Halloween and already I could write a book. I fear I've come close to doing
exactly that here. Sorry about the length of this post. And in case anyone has
made it all the way down here and is wondering - NO, Minnie will not be judged
in comparison to Goldie. She could poop gold nuggets three times a day for the
next fifteen years, thereby making me a billionaire, and measuring up to Goldie
would still be impossible. I will NEVER forget him! But Minnie already has, and
will continue to have, a special place in my heart that's her very own. - JDK