Chapter 26b/Smarty the Cat!

Smarty was Mom and Dad's very first animal child or PET, if you insist, they "obtained" together. It seems like most of their pets were not "planned", but "obtained", which seems to me that they were just meant to be all my brother's and sisters before me!

SMARTY

Mom and Dad lived in an apartment on Pacific Avenue in Tacoma Washington about 100 years ago...uhhh well, maybe I'm exaggerating just a tad. Anyway, they lived in an upstairs apartment for over a year when they first got married and on their very first Halloween together........ they got a Halloween Cat! Well, he wasn't black but he was certainly Orange! They heard this strange crying outside their door way up high on the top of the steps. Dad aka Dr Doolittle, sprung into action! Opening the door, there was the wettest most pathetic little yellow/orange cat that you can ever imagine!

Mom really didn't want a cat in a tiny apartment, but she got it :) and she fell in love with Smarty. Smarty slept with them every night and loved them EXCLUSIVELY.. and I do mean exclusively. If anyone came to the apartment and later to the house they moved to, they never knew Mom and Dad had a cat because Smarty became invisible.

The next year Mom and Dad had our little human sister Suzy. Smarty just wasn't too sure about that baby at all! The first week that Suzy was home, Smarty laid at the foot of the bed and just stared at her. I think he thought if he stared long enough he could make her disappear, but in the end, he decided if Mom and Dad loved her that he would love her too.

When it got time to leave Washington and move to Tennessee, Smarty came with them.. There were all sorts of papers and shots and a big to do to take her in to California, which Mom and Dad did not appreciate. But they did it. On the way they stopped at a park in CA. to let Smarty get out and walk around and they spent 2 hours waiting for him to show up. Mom was deeply distressed and very close to homicidal thoughts directed at Dad I think :)

Smarty weighed 20 pounds when he was fully grown and had long beautiful orange hair. Mom still thinks he was the prettiest cat she's ever seen. (take that Lil Bro..heh heh heh)

We won't go in to details about what became of Smarty, but I will tell you that Mom came very close to packing baby Suzy up and heading back to Washington! I KNOW I would have loved Smarty!