When we moved from the city to our present country location in 1975, we were willing to get pets to join our family, thinking it would help our son and daughter make the transition from city to rural living.
Kathy, our eight year old daughter had requested to have an orange cat, and Jason, our nine year old son wanted any kind of dog to play with. In short order, the orange cat arrived and was named 'Cfer' by our daughter, and an adult German Shepherd who loved the outdoors, became our son's constant companion.
Living in the country gave all of us a lot of freedom, as well as great neighbors, and we all adjusted quickly to our new home. Our kids are gone now, grown up and married with their own family and pets, and we are still “country bumpkins”, planning to remain here until the Handi Bus become our mode of transportation. The mother of this family, (that would be me) had never had much love for cats. Their personalities are interesting, but I hated cat hair all through the house, and especially on my black clothes.
C-fer did help to keep the mice population in our house to a minimum, and was very proud to drag any result of his hunting expeditions in the 'great outdoors', up a full flight of outside stairs to deposit his trophy (mice, gophers, moles, small birds, and the occasional rabbit) to the patio door by our kitchen. He also learned to accompany the dog down the road to meet the school bus, hoping that his favorite girl would carry him back home (which she often did). At night (and any other time he could get away with it) he would ignored his bed to sneak into his girl's bed.
When it was time for Kathy to attend university in another country, she found a new home in the neighborhood for C-fer, and I must admit that even I missed his antics. Kathy was always welcome to come by and visit her furry friends whenever she came home. Here is my favorite picture of C-Fer... taken in 1979.
Oh...I almost forgot to tell you about our country cat's name. If you haven't already figured it out, it was Kathy's idea (with some help from her father) to give her new furry friend a very cute name, even though she had never heard it before. It was the shortened version of 'C' for Cat! Can you guess our son's dog's name?
Tags: Pets Cat Family Country Living
