Grumphhh.

by Stephanie
(U.S.A.)

Hello, I thought I would write about Grumphhh the cat that we did not choose.

She started hanging around our back yard, at first occasionally, then every day. The kids, John and Saul, were fascinated with her and before long insisted on giving her a saucer of milk. My first thoughts were no, not an idea, the cat is only going to hang around more! And I was right.

If there was no one out the back of the house Grumphhh would scratch and even tap her paw on the window glass! She knows how to get her attention. John, who was six at the time thought it a cool idea to let her in the house, strangely Robert my husband and myself didn't think it so cool. Robert scooped up the cat and tried to deposit her outside, of course she just ran back in, it took several attempts to shut her out. We vainly hoped that she would just disappear off to wherever she belonged. No such hope.

You have a cat insistent that she wants in your house and two kids that are insistent that she would make a fine pet, what do you do? You cave in that's what.

We did ask around, we already knew that she did not belong in the area immediately around our home, but no one at all was missing a cat of her description. She had no collar or ID.

Now that name. The kids would come up with a different name each day that they wanted to call her, couldn't settle on anything. It was Robert that started calling her Grumphhh because that is the sound that she makes. She wants feeding, Grumphhh. She wants picking up, Grumphhh. She wants outside, Grumphhh. She does make conventional meows now and then but its a rare thing.

We are not at all sure how old Grumphhh is, she has been with this family about five years now. I think she is getting to be an old lady, she is slowing up.

We don't regret taking her in at all, she has been (and is) a wonderful pet, always very good with the kids who were sometimes rough with her when they were young. Never an accident in the house, never shredded anything up, eats what you put in front of her, always ready to give you some love.

We are glad that Grumphhh came to stay.