Missing Zeus

 One thing about living in the country is that you have critters. No matter how spotlessly clean you keep your house (and mine isn't) you are going to contend with the occasional field mouse as soon as the weather turns cold. That is the danger of making a human habitat comfortable. The nicer it feels to live in for people the better everything else likes it too. I mean who doesn't want temperate comfortable hole full of yummy food to live in? 

The best deterrent for the rodent problem is to have a cat. In case you have never seen Tom & Jerry, mice are not going to completely avoid your place just because a cat is present. It makes them a lot more cautious. If you combine a cat with good house keeping you can almost be rodent free. My cats are such good mousers they catch and kill the vermin outside. 

Because I know this I had zero objections to Dad bringing in two kittens a couple of years back. I like animals in general. I like cats and dogs specifically. I have resisted personal attachment to animals since our Saint Bernard died several years ago. I love on the ones that are around. I enjoy them. None of them belong to me. 

Now, I would argue that people never really own most cats with a few rare exceptions. Once the cat adopts your living space, be it house or apartment, the space belongs to the cat. If the cat tolerates then you have a feline landlord. It will allow you to feed it and clean up after it. Sometimes, a cat chooses to own a human. 

One of the aforementioned kittens, now grown to a cat, has adopted me. He has me well trained to understand different meows. We communicate well. I know the difference between the meows that mean I want out, I want food, I want water, and I demand your attention now. We have a routine. I know he has adopted me because our routine includes both cuddles and pets at his leisure. This normally happens between 7am and 8 am daily. This is followed by a regal feline stretch and a request for outside. I can almost set my watch that he will want back inside no later than noon. He jumps into my office window to let me know. 

Oddly enough, I didn't set out for him to be my cat. As I said, I don't try to get too attached anymore. While those two were still kittens, I stumbled upon another kitten that was being run off by its mother. I was outside working on the car and heard little kitten meows of distress coming from the Dogwood tree that was once at the front of our property. The tree was skirted by bushes which I fought through to rescue this cute little tortoise shell kitten. I brought her inside and named her Zeus without raising her skirt to check to plumbing. The attitude matched the name. 

Zeus thrived inside and pretty quickly she and the other two were big enough to come in and out of the house as they pleased. I didn't attempt any special bond with Zeus. She mostly spent her time doing cat things with her cat friends. I did get to rescue her a second time when our backyard dog treed her. She got herself 40 or so feet off the ground and just meowed in misery with no way down. One of the few times she showed some affection toward me was when she was safely down. 

I have had a special fondness for Zeus since finding her in that bush. She disappeared about a week ago without a trace. It bugs me, but I suspect Zeus took herself on an adventure. More than the other two she really was a wild cat in spite of having been fixed. 

I am not totally distraught or anything. I have just done a little bit of looking around. She isn't hurt or dead anywhere nearby. That is comforting. Cats are known to take off. I can be good with that. 

I would be way more upset if it were one of the other two that vanished. There is a lot more of a bond there. Still, I keep hoping Zeus will turn up. Who knows, maybe she took back off for Olympus?

Stupid cat.