Marley is a rather unusual cat. Her story is rather odd.
We (the spouse and I) had gone to the local mega pet store. We needed dog food. Well, puppy food. George and Gracie were still too young for regular dog food. But they were close.
Stick chewing 101
They were a handful. And our Putter did not like them. She had gotten old and her patience with the canine species had stretched thin.
She spent her time in her cat tree near the window in my office. She no longer ventured into the Land of Dog.
As usual, I digress.
The pet store was part of a program from our local college for the adoption of relinquished cats. Once a week the students would bring adoptable cats to the store in hopes that they would be adopted.
We usually stopped to look but this time we had made a pact that there would be no new animals. The pups were keeping us really busy and Putter (we thought) would not be happy with more creatures.
But to get to the dog food that we needed, we had to walk by the glass enclosures where the cats were located. (ok, there were other ways to get there but…)
To our credit we did not stop. But one cat ran to the glass, pressed his front paws on that glass and cried when the Spouse walked by. To his credit, he did not stop. But he had seen.
“Beautiful cat,” he said.
“Yes,” I said.
We picked up the dog food. Picked up some cat litter for Putter. Strolled past the cat enclosure and BAM! That cat hit the glass, paws up and crying. Mind you, Spouse is well in front of me. The cat was after HIM!!
Spouse did stop and talk to the cat, tell her that we couldn’t take her. With a heavy sigh, he walked away.
“We can’t have another cat right now. It wouldn’t be fair to Putter.”
“The dogs might not like another cat.”
“A cat might get on the kitchen counters. Putter never leaves the office”
These were some of the comments as we trudged to the car with our purchases. I started the car as Spouse shut his door.
“That is a beautiful cat,” he said.
I turned off the car. We went back in.
When they opened the door for the “face-to-face” meeting of human and feline, the cat RAN in and jumped into Spouse’s lap. She ignored me.
And she came home with us.
Marley and her HOOMAN
She faced Putter and, although never fully accepted, she maintained a working with relationship with the elder cat.
She took over the puppy bed.
Her biggest quirk? Crinkly anything. Paper, plastic, foil. If it crinkles, she will be chewing on it. Not eating it. Making it crinkle.
Crinkly things are most often found on countertops. NOOOOO!!!!
YESSSSS!
I have given up the countertop fight. Not because I like a cat on the countertop but because she only gets on the countertop if there is something there that will crinkle. She eschews any human food. The butter can stay out. She has no interest. Left-overs need not be addressed immediately as they do not crinkle.
But give her a potato bag? She is in feline heaven.
She still ignores me, though.
Talkin' to Myself 
Cute story!! I love that you guys could not resist her! She knew which family would love her the most!
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I really enjoyed this story – thank you for sharing it. It made me smile – a lot. 🙂
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Thanks, Carol. I never knew a cat that could cuddle with a potato bag!
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She knew a family that had crinklies!!! hehehe
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Hi Gael, Really enjoyed your cat story. We used to have 3 cats and a dog, then 2 cats and a dog, then 2 dogs and a cat, and now just 1 dog–a gold-plated dog I might add, which helps explain the declining pet population at our house. I have been keeping an eye out for a cat that comes into our lives–as they have done in the past. We cuddle up any friendly neighborhood cats, but it is not the same. Just before we took the Central Coast trip, a pretty fluffy, gray and white cat came crying at our front door. Insistent, I was convinced he was starving, although he didn’t appear skinny. So of course we feed it (can’t tell gender under all that fluff), and put out water in our long driveway. This so outraged our corgi, that we didn’t think we could adopt “fluffy”. I posted a picture up on our local “Nextdoor” site, hoping this very affectionate cat’s family might find him. The only responses I got were from other neighbors who ID’d him as the cat who had been begging from them in the last week. We figured we’d take “Fluffy” into a vet for a microchip scan when we got back We told our neighbors about the cat–they have one of their own who is an inside/outside pet –and asked them to put out some dry food for Fluffy while we were gone.
By the time we returned “Fluffy” had been renamed “Petey”. Turns out he moved into the cabinet that surrounds their water heater, made friends with the neighbor’s cat, and lavished attention on their young sons. Problem solved. Bonus: we fed and entertained the neighbors’ cats while their were on vacation, recently. Petey, aka Fluffy, has decided our yard is just an extension of his front garden, and a good place to get away from the 3 year old. And it has the added attraction of teasing our corgi to distraction. Kirby will charge the cat from our side of the fence and Petey rolls over on his back in the driveway and grooms himself. Petey greets us each night as we go out for our walk, demanding his tribute of pets, tummy rubs and chin scratches.
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Cats are awesome! Ours likes anything that makes a noise as well.
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Dang, she looks a lot like the cat I had as a kid, Ataturk. And I don’t even blink when there’s a cat on the counter. I own bleach, it’s never been a big deal.
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