Lady

As I have written in previous blogs, I spent a lot of my childhood camping/fishing. My step dad loved to fish so most of our trips were fishing trips. My brother, who was in the Army had somehow picked up a cat as a hitchhiker on a trip back home once. He gave her to me. Here is a photo of Lady and me.

 

We took her with us in the bus camper every time we went on a trip. Lady was declawed but that didn't stop her from removing the lid off of my step dad's minnow bucket and then preceeding to empty it of all the minnows. Oh how mad he would be to find his bait gone, lol. Of course mom and me thought it oh so funny to watch her catch and then eat the minnows. Lady would stick her paw in the water and smack a minnow up against the side of the bucket. She would then just push it up the side and out of the bucket, where it would fall to the ground and she would then eat it. Lady had this so down pat that she could empty a full minnow bucket in 10 minutes. Lady liked fish for sure. I once won a goldfish at the fair and she ate it the same day. I didn't bring anymore fish home...On one of our fishing trips in the bus Lady managed to get out the door one night. I was a basket case and my mom was so upset. My mom was feeling guilty because she had her declawed. Now here Lady was outside at night with no claws for protection. My mom said I will never forgive myself if anything happens to her. She grabbed the flashlight and off we went to look for her. We heard what sounded like 2 cats fighting and headed in that direction. It was late at night and here we are running around in a campground yelling "LADY, HERE KITTY KITTY" Somehow, someway my mom seen what she was hoping to be Lady and not a raccoon. As you can see in the photo Lady was a gray with black stripes cat and her tail kinda looked like a raccoon. All we could see was the back half of an animal that had it's head stuck under someone's tent. My mom asked me is it Lady? I said it looks like her. Being brave, she reached down and grabbed the animal up. Thankfully it was indeed Lady. I was so very happy that we had found her because she was sometimes the only friend I had and I loved her dearly....I wrote before of a Christmas we spent in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I came across this picture I had taken there.

 

 

The campgrounds where we were staying had a building that they used for card games, pot luck dinners, etc. Since it was holiday time when we were there, they had a little New Year's Eve party. We played games and ate. One of the games was for the wives to make hats for their husbands out of newspaper. The best one won a prize. My mom didn't win but the photo is my step dad (center) and his friend wearing their hats....lol