But she had become part of our family.
She first came to us in a snowy evening in February of 2000. It was actually a snowstorm, the wind was howling, but above the wind I heard a desparate "meow". I have a soft spot for animals, so I put on my winter gear and headed outside to see what was going on, but I couldn't find anyone. I did put out some food, just in case a critter was hiding near by.
In the next few days, every so often we would see this wild cat running somewhere to hide in our yard. I could tell she was half-starved and so I started putting out more food every day. Eventually, I would sit on the porch steps and each day move the food a little closer to me. The time came when she made friends with me, and we found out that she had been somebody's pet and either she had gotten lost or somebody dumped her in our area. We found out she was used to humans, and later on when we started letting her come in the house, we learned she was housetrained.
I named her Smokie - partly because of her coloring and partly because she could appear and disappear so quickly. She was a mixed-breed long hair cat with very blue eyes; by her coloring it looked like she had an ancester somewhere who had been of the Siamese cat breed. She and I became very close friends and eventually she would even let Paul and Darold pet her, but she would never allow any of us to pick her up. She was the queen and she would decide when she wanted to be touched and when she wanted to jump on our laps. She earned her keep by keeping our mouse and rabbit population under control.
About two weeks we noticed that she was sick; we knew we couldn't take her to a vet, she would never allow that. She would come to the house only every other day for a few sips of water and a few drops of liquid food. Finally we decided it was time, and on Saturday she was assisted on her way to kitty heaven. I don't know how old she was because she was an adult cat when she arrived at our place.
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