The November prompt word from the Haiku Art Group is “gnarled.” First thing I decided was that this one will be a photo – no time right now to do a quick art quilt for this theme and besides, I knew the perfect subject for my ‘gnarled’ challenge.
For several years we have had a little family of feral cats occupying our back yard. Yes, we’ve been feeding them, and at one point early on we trapped them (3) and took them to be sterilized and for shots. We then turned them loose once again. There was no way these were ever going to be pets.
Now, there is one plus a couple of neighborhood interlopers who come around from time to time. This remaining little cat is the original – the Mom cat – she must be at least 15 or 16 now and is a tiny tough kitty. And very gnarly indeed.
Here is my Haiku:
Gnarly Old Cat
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I love cats. I always want to feed and adopt feral cats and I follow them as far as I can when they retreat. My last cat, Prince Joey Fatone, had been a feral cat at some point and had the tell-tale nick in his ear. At the same time, he detested being outside (which I promptly cured him of) and would come running out of nowhere at the sound of the can opener in action. This led me to the conclusion that he must have been the pet of some very elderly folks who never let him outdoors and fed him out of a can. I lost Joey to diabetes in June 2008.