by Bill Cox

Created on: June 17, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

Soopy -just an ordinary cat?

I remember many years ago when Christmas arrived at a very trying time for me and my family. The money I could afford for gifts would not fill the family's stockings. I found myself with empty hands two days before Christmas Eve.

Walking down the mall of a small shopping center I saw two kittens in a pet shop. Their eyes were pleading me to take them home. I thought I had found the perfect gift for my family and hurried inside to purchase one of the kittens. I left the shop disappointed and with a heavy heart. The kittens were purebreds with a price tag way out of my reach.

I telephoned pet shops but nothing within my budget was available. I no longer owned a car so one of my sons drove me to the SPCA where four black kittens were available for $10.00 each. With a litter box, and some cat food I was able to close a deal. I arrived home with the coal black, longhaired, yellow-eyed ball of fur in my parka pocket.

More expensive presents would never have delighted my companion and children as did that little black kitten.

Then began our adaptation to Soopy and not the contrary. A cat does whatever it wants and you move aside. Soopy demonstrated this to us very soon after his arrival when we found him swinging on a macram lampshade over the kitchen table. It took a few tries before he got the knack of the litter box and I stepped onto the wet rug a couple of times with bare feet.

Sleeping became a game of who was the most insistent. Have you ever tried to sleep with a purring cat sharing your pillow? Move him down to the bottom of the bed and you wake up an hour later to find him back on your pillow. Finally, we came to a gentleman's agreement and Soopy slept on the covers but between my legs. Whenever I turned over I had to take every precaution so as not to disturb his highness.

I think my companion and I were equal masters to Soopy; my companion, because she was with him most of the time and she fed him, me because I played with him a lot. He would lie on the rug when I arrived from work to roughhouse with me. I got a few scratches from these episodes.

Not long after he had become a member of our family he moved with us to the Townships. We all settled into a happy routine. Soopy's routine.

Of course Soopy was not allowed to run loose and was always on a tether with a shoulder harness. I installed a small cable across the front lawn with a leash on a pulley and another in the back yard to suit his moods. When my visiting brother saw him tied

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