One Saturday morning in October of 2001, a woman knocked at our door. She had seen the tongue-in-cheek sign at the end our driveway "Blue Barn Estate and Cat Ranch." So she hoped we might be willing to adopt a 12-week old kitten she had rescued from the road. When I first saw the kitten, I couldn't believe the lady could part with her. Her distinctive markings and fluffy fur were enchanting.
Despite her short legs, Foofie loved to leap in the air to catch dragonflies.
She would bring them in through the cat door and release them into our barn where they would fly around until we could somehow manage to catch them to return them outdoors.
Foofie was not a lap sitter or a snuggler like some of our other cats. She showed her affection in other ways. If we held out our hands a foot over her head, she liked to do "pop-ups." She would mark my face with the side of her face. Her most typical greeting when we would come home was to hurl her body into the sand and roll around on her back, legs splayed. For a while we kept finding large dry leaves on the kitchen floor. Then one day, my husband spotted her coming through the cat door with a loquat leaf in her mouth. From then on, we knew the leaves with the two puncture marks were gifts from Foofie.
Her sudden death was probably a result of one of her most distinctive characteristics: her fearlessness. For example, our other four cats are afraid of our neighbor's dog, but not Foofie. She walked side by side with the dog on our many treks in the woods.
We do not know what animal inflicted the fatal wounds to her, and I guess it doesn't matter now. Two days before she died (July 17, 2006) we had decided to erect a cat containment fence to allow our precious friends to go outside in a protected space. Now we are absolutely committed to this. We will always miss her exquisite feline beauty and her light joyful spirit.
Despite her short legs, Foofie loved to leap in the air to catch dragonflies.
She would bring them in through the cat door and release them into our barn where they would fly around until we could somehow manage to catch them to return them outdoors.
Foofie was not a lap sitter or a snuggler like some of our other cats. She showed her affection in other ways. If we held out our hands a foot over her head, she liked to do "pop-ups." She would mark my face with the side of her face. Her most typical greeting when we would come home was to hurl her body into the sand and roll around on her back, legs splayed. For a while we kept finding large dry leaves on the kitchen floor. Then one day, my husband spotted her coming through the cat door with a loquat leaf in her mouth. From then on, we knew the leaves with the two puncture marks were gifts from Foofie.
Her sudden death was probably a result of one of her most distinctive characteristics: her fearlessness. For example, our other four cats are afraid of our neighbor's dog, but not Foofie. She walked side by side with the dog on our many treks in the woods.
We do not know what animal inflicted the fatal wounds to her, and I guess it doesn't matter now. Two days before she died (July 17, 2006) we had decided to erect a cat containment fence to allow our precious friends to go outside in a protected space. Now we are absolutely committed to this. We will always miss her exquisite feline beauty and her light joyful spirit.
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