August 12, 2006

Squeeky adopted me early in 2005.  I had seen him the previous Fall hunting in my pasture at times, but could never get near him.  One morning  I was feeding horses before work and heard him crying from the large maple tree in the front lawn.  He had climbed up to a large branch about half way up the tree and could not figure out how to get down.

I asked Jim to get the ladder so I could climb up and get him, then talked to the cat while I waited.  He seemed to relax a bit, then started rubbing his face against the branch and rolling around ...  next thing I knew he was falling from the tree.  I scooped him up to see if he was okay and after looking dazed for a moment, he turned to me and apparently decided that I had rescued him from the tree!

From that moment on he became my shadow.  The first few weeks he followed me everywhere and talked LOUDLY and CONSTANTLY.  The contractors who were putting siding on the house at the time commented that they'd never seen a cat that made so much noise.  I began to refer to him as Squeeky.  

He was in good health and had a collar on, so I tried, unsuccessfully,  to find his previous owner. When it became clear that he was here to stay, I tried to give him a "respectable" name.  But Squeeky evidently had decided he liked his name.  If we said "Squeeky" he would answer or roll around or run up to you in response.  If I tried to call him something else, he would just put his tail straight in the air and walk away or ignore you in typical cat fashion.  So "Squeeky" it was.

As I said, he was my shadow for almost 2 years.  At night he would often come in and sit by the computer while I worked or lay on the bed and watch me.  He is the only cat that would could get along with my house cat, Tess, so he became a good companion and playmate for her during the winter while I was at work.  In the evening when I was doing barn chores, he insisted on coming out with me no matter what the weather.  But of course if it was snowing, he let me know that I should carry him to and from the barn!   He would follow me while I fed or cleaned stalls, or walk the barn rafters looking for the birds that had been such a nuscence before he came.  He would sit on a fence post and watch me work with the horses or mow the lawn.   He seemed to always have one eye or one ear open for me.  On sunny days I would often see him sleeping in the sheep pen or spread out on the top of the truck cab.  And when I came home at night, he recognized the sound of my truck and would always come out from wherever he was to greet me, often jumping in the cab as soon as I opened the door.

We found Squeeky this morning just outside the fence in front of the house.  That was the first time I'd ever seen him outside that fence and I thought he must have gotten hit by a car, but there was no evidence of that.  It looks like he probably choked, but I guess I'll never know for sure.  We buried him in the pasture where he used to like to hunt.

I miss him.