For reasons that probably defy rational explanation, we have added another cat to the household. His name is Alfred; he’s a short-haired Siamese/orange tabby mix and is two years old. Imagine someone used Photoshop to replace the dark parts of a Siamese with orange tabby markings and you’ll have a mental image of Alfred.
Alfred apparently came from a troubled home. He was left in the night depository of the Longmont humane society building with a note explaining that he got along well with other cats and had had his vaccinations. It seems that someone cared enough about him to try to aid in his placement in a new home but couldn’t afford the usual fee for surrendering a pet.
He also apparently came from a quiet home since he was quite distraught by the din at the humane society. The first that Tracie saw of him was just his face peeking out from under some towels. Once we spent some time with him in a visiting room he relaxed a bit and was very content to sit in our laps (until some idiot child started banging on the glass–yes, while we were in the room with the cat).
Now that he’s been here for a little while he’s considerably more confident and seems to have a good appetite. He’s a little underweight (more evidence of a slightly impoverished background, perhaps) so we’re feeding him well. Tomorrow he gets to go to the vet for a routine post-adoption checkup, and so that the vet can look at Tracie with a mixture of awe, gratitude, and incredulity.
Alfred is named after Alfred Wetzler, one of very few people who successfully escaped from Auschwitz. He brought with him a 32-page report he wrote about the inner workings of the death camp, providing the Allies with the first detailed and credible report of the Nazi death camps. We named him after an escape artist because a few minutes after we left the humane society building, he managed to partly disassemble and escape from the cardboard carrier in which we were transporting him.
We adopted him on his birthday. We figure he just received the best birthday present a cat could imagine, if cats could imagine such things.
As they say on Prairie Home Companion: “Winter’s coming – time to stock up on cats.” Nice looking cat. I like the way tabby and siamese mix, although with the white muzzle Alfred actually looks a bit like a Rag Doll too. We’ve got a couple of tabbies – one very fluffy, almost a Maine Coon, another polydactyl with ‘thumbs’, both fairly large. Lots of fun…