by M. F. Carbo

Created on: March 12, 2009   Last Updated: March 14, 2009

I was the owner of numerous cats over the course of my life. I would have to say that some of these cats touched my life more than others with their personality and charm. One such cat, Hearns, was the master of his domain. Even though at the same time we had two dogs he had buffaloed both of them into cleaning him and even when they were given human food Hearns would be the first to eat. I guess what I'm getting at is that Hearns taught me that if you think of yourself highly everyone else will more than likely follow suit.

Hearns also believed that he should have dibs on whatever you were eating too and he would like to sit and give you this stare with half opened eyes like he was disgusted that you would be eating without including him in your dinner plan. He would then proceed to try and knock your fork or spoon out of your plate or your hand if you weren't paying attention. Hearns knew that he was loved even though a lot of the time he didn't bother coming by us.

When he would come around and show up he wanted our undivided attention. I guess that would be another thing he taught me, how to keep people from taking you for granted by being so darn unpredictable. Hearns wasn't an attractive cat. He was large (over 16 lbs) and he had the worst looking fur you could imagine. He refused to clean himself like most cats do and seemed content with the job the dogs had been doing.

My own sister in law, Adele, once stated that Hearns was lucky he found us because no one else would have wanted him. Hearns taught me that looks don't really matter when you have a winning personality such as his. He was usually calm, cool, and collected he never was in a rush or excited about anything. I remember one time having to shave him because he had gotten a lot of knots in his fur, which was a first time I've even seen a short haired cat get knots. He complained the whole time I shaved him and tried many times to escape to no avail. He had an undercoat that was gray and his legs were still black so he vaguely resembled a sheep. We would laugh when he would run past and I could swear that he knew we were poking fun at him.

He'd run past like he didn't want us to see him, or perhaps he was scared that I might pull out the electric shaver again, I really dont know. I learned that even though Hearns tried to act like a big shot a bad hair day knocked him down a few notches.

Hearns was a wonderful cat that passed away after a brief illness in the beginning of 2007.

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