Junior, aka "June Man", aka "Perimeter Cat"
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Junior was found in September of 1990. Cathie, (my then companion), and I noticed a rust/brown cat wandering around on a street near our house. This kitty, friendly enough, allowed us to get a closer look whereby we noticed that he was sporting a red collar with bells. Seemingly having no destination, he stayed. Even though we advertised in the lost and found section of the Nashville paper and placed notices in all nearby mailboxes, there never was a claim from an owner, so we decided to keep him. We had him neutered and started on his shots, the criteria for becoming part of the family. We were reminded of a cat that we had years ago, whom we called "BOB", an acronym for 'Big Old Baby'. |
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Even though Bob was large and looked quite imposing, he was a real baby at heart who loved to be touched and held, so the name appropriately fit. Thus, became 'Bob Junior', later shortened to just 'Junior', the new name for our new cat. Junior, however, was his own cat and never as meek and mild as Bob. He exhibited assertive behavior after brief petting, allowing himself to be petted for a short time, and then only on his head. One would do well to watch the tip of his tail for twitching, the signal, "OK, thanks, but that's enough!" In April of 1992, we moved Junior, along with our other pets, to another home. Being a quarter of a mile off a dead-end road, I loved this new home because of the safety it afforded my animals and for the quiet solitude it afforded me. I bought a lawn tractor and began enlarging the size of the cleared area around the house. This was not just for my own aesthetic taste, but also to keep the fleas and ticks at bay. Junior loved our new home, and would daily sit at the edge of the mown area, staring for hours out into the wilderness of the un-mown and unknown. Thus he earned one of his nicknames, "Perimeter Cat." With the death of my special cat, Dixon, who was the absolute love of my life, April of 2001, Junior became the Alpha cat. As a result his whole attitude changed. No longer quite as aggressive, he began to adopt some of Dixon’s mannerisms, including lying on my chest and demanding attention. From that time on and gradually, there was very little twitching of the tail to warn me to cease touching him, and a lot more demand for attention on his part. Cathie and I parted ways in 1993, but cats, being creatures of habit, are resilient and as long as you do not disturb their routine, life for them will go on as usual. Junior is at least fourteen years old now and has adapted to senior living. He sleeps on my bed just to my left and, like all my cats, has learned to paw the blinds on the outside bedroom door when he needs to go outside. This habit is something that all of my cats learned from yet another cat, “Moon Cat”, who had come to us in the early eighties and also made the move out here where I currently live, with the rest of my pet family. “Moon Cat” passed away August 10th, 1997. I think of her often and still miss her. Written by Jim- |
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