Most of you know that my mother’s cat, Smokey, is the model for Rags in my stories. While he isn’t a klepto cat (that aspect of Rags came from my precious patooty tabby, Lily), he is the poster cat for confidence, and that’s what I was after in creating my star cat.
Smokey is a adventurer. He MUST have outdoor time. He adores roaming the neighborhood and his timing is excellent. I mean, he’s had some harrowing experiences of his own. When he was a kitten, he learned to never try outrunning a bunny. One small rabbit managed to find his way into Smokey’s yard and
he chased that little thing around until he (yes the cat) ran out of steam and collapsed in a heap. The bunny finally figured out how to climb out of the sunken backyard and he lived to encounter another wily cat.
Smokey bring my mother heartfelt gifts: lizards, mostly. We drove an injured hummingbird to a local bird sanctuary once, hoping he could be saved. There have been many bird incidents and surprisingly most of the birds survived. Smokey is a catch and release kind of guy—only problem is he releases his prey in the house.
Smokey has a way of being in the right place at the right time. One afternoon a neighbor woman visited Mama. She started the conversation by saying, “I need to talk to you about your cat.”
At that moment, Smokey scooted past the neighbor from outside and ran inside the house. The neighbor said, “Well, that’s not your cat!”
Mama assured her that he was. Well, it seems that
another cat in the neighborhood—one that Mama had been feeding, as a matter of fact, but who wore a collar and had a family around the corner—had bitten the neighbor and she ended up in the hospital. Mama was about to be presented with a law suit except for Smokey’s purrfect timing.
Smokey is comical—he often entertains guests. He’s super friendly—he loves being petted as much as he likes roaming free. And at the end of the day, and on rainy days (or when the gardeners are there), he enjoys nothing more than a warm lap to curl up in. Did I say “curl up?” Well, that’s not quite accurate. As you can see, Smokey is a sprawling sort of cat. I guess that’s the Ragdoll influence from his mother cat. We can only speculate who’s on the other side of his genealogical makeup.
