Category: Galleries

Months before the first semester of law school started, I stayed in Fresno, California with my mom and brother. The neighborhood was generally very quiet. But one day, I distinctly heard meowing nearby. It wasn’t our cat, I thought to myself. So I didn’t pay much heed, but hours later, I couldn’t stand it anymore. From my mom’s bedroom window, I looked down into our next door neighbor’s backyard, and sure enough, a kitten sat in front of their sliding patio door…in the cold. What?!

I walked to our backyard toward the fence that separated us from our neighbor and called to the kitty. Of course, he came to the fence right away! He was so eager and desperate for contact. Being the cat lover that I am, I couldn’t help but want to “help” the adorable kitten before me. So I dug a tiny hole in the ground under the fence… Somehow, he knew what I was doing and as soon as the hole was large enough (which wasn’t that large considering he was tiny), he crawled through. Oh the delight that ensued! Such a playful and smart kitten. I think I spent the afternoon just playing with him. Then I worried about what the neighbors might do if they found him missing. With a heavy heart, I picked up the little kitten, put him back under the fence, and filled up the hole.

This just made it worse as he continued meowing his lament, as if directed at me this time. The kitten had hutzpah, for he meowed what seemed like the entire rest of the day. The next day, I did the same thing. Dug the hole under the fence and played with the oh so lonely and cold kitten. This time, I brought him inside. He was so happy. At this point, my mom and brother saw the kitten and understood the situation. We were all abhorred that our neighbors (whom we didn’t know) would leave a kitten out in the cold without any shelter. But it wasn’t our business. So, at the end of the day, the little kitten went back under the fence where he continued to cry.

Then something surprising happened the next day. The kitten learned to dig, and let himself into our backyard. Imagine my surprise (and delight) when I found him in our backyard, not crying. This went on for a few days. One day, my mom had friends over. She called me into the living room because the kitten was stuck to the screen door—literally, clinging to the screen door about 3 feet off the ground. lol. He was trying to get in the house, but the screen was in the way! A few days later, the neighbors figured out what was happening, I think, and tied the kitten to a post in their backyard. Well, that backfired on them because he wound himself around the post to the point where he could barely move. So, they removed the tether. And, once again, he found his way to our house.

It’s amazing how his presence became the norm. So much so that we worried about him before leaving town for a few days. I don’t know what happened during those days; whether this little cat spent the afternoons in our backyard only to return home for food. But upon our return home, there he was, waiting for us on one of the outdoor chairs, cool as a cucumber.

What happened next changed everything. My mom and I were out shopping. When we drove into the garage, my mom got out of the car and shrieked. The sneaky little cat was waiting for us in the front yard and followed the car into the garage. That was it for my mom. She told my brother to take the kitten to our neighbor’s house and tell them, once and for all, to either take care of their cat or give him to us. A few minutes later, my brother returned, with the kitten, saying he was ours.

And so, that’s how Thomas came to live with us. Actually, he started out as Big-head Tom. Tom because he was grey and white like Tom from Tom & Jerry. But Thomas fit him better. It wasn’t until later when the little boy (the cat was supposed to be his, when he stayed with his father and step-mother) dropped by that we learned Thomas’s original name: Bubba. (If you knew Thomas, you’d know that such a cultured and elegant cat was not to be named Bubba.)

From there, Thomas went on to have many grand adventures…