Dusty

Dusty is the latest addition to our family. A beautiful white cat with clear blue eyes, he showed up on our property rather mysteriously one day last September. At the time, our neighbor’s cat, Morris, spent about half her time at our house and had established ownership of our front porch. When the white cat would try to get to the food on the porch, Morris, though half the size of this new ghost-like intruder, made it perfectly clear that this porch belonged to her and she had no intention of sharing.

We didn’t want to have to deal with a cat fight, so we supported Morris by shooing the white cat away, and he would reluctantly retreat to the yard only to look back at us and plead for a share of the food with the most pitiful-sounding cat voice I’ve ever heard. Oh, how I hated to keep chasing him away, but for three or four days that’s exactly what we did – until we happened to see him on the back porch eating food out of the dog’s bowl. Poor kitty. I had assumed he lived up the street somewhere and was just trying to extend his territory, but when I saw him eating the dog food I realized that he was awfully thin and must not be getting fed somewhere else. So, I relented and put a bowl of cat food on the back porch, out of our dog’s reach. He gobbled the food, eating like he hadn’t eaten in days and days, as was apparently the case.

Well, to make a long story short, it wasn’t long before the white cat decided the back porch just wasn’t big enough to share with the dog and he wanted the big front porch to be his, and so it was. When we found Morris up a tree one day and the blue-eyed white cat sunning himself by the front door, the change in ownership was complete. We didn’t feel too awfully bad for Morris because he had a loving family who fed him and a warm doghouse to sleep in. Besides, I’d occasionally slip her a bowl of food on the boat behind the garage, the place where she liked to go to cool off on a hot day.

We never did figure out where this white cat came from, but we eventually decided since he had resigned himself to staying, we’d might as well give him a name. Our number two son, the animal lover and former vet assistant, thought Dusty would be a good name, and so it was. He judged Dusty to be about a year old, which is probably about right. Nearly full-grown when he showed up, Dusty had filled out quickly with a regular diet and his orange features had become more prominent.

Dusty is a very loving cat who thrives on attention. He has learned to be submissive to us and trusts us for his livelihood. He has a nice, warm bed on the porch since he must stay outside due to our two indoor cats, who are too old to adjust to a newcomer. He still has a tiny little meow for such a big boy, but he doesn’t sound quite so pitiful anymore. In fact, when he runs from the porch to the garage to greet us when we arrive home, he looks and sounds downright happy to be here. And we’re happy to have him.