Thus far, our man Cupcake was a young tomcat just getting along in his small and often-confusing world... When The Flood of 1994 came literally into his basement, trapping him high up on a shelf, not knowing when or whether anyone was going to come and try to rescue him ... and whether they would be successful if they did.
Cupcake didn't know it, but outside of his own basement, nearly the entire city (population over 175,000 at the time) was under water in some way. The MAJORITY of homes had at least a foot deep of rain water in their basements and / or first floor rooms. Even worse for our cat friend's situation was the fact that about half of ALL the main streets (forget about the small side roads!) were closed, damaged and flooded too.
Cupcake is stoic when he tells his story to other cats... It's difficult even to imagine how he felt each day, waiting and hoping and wondering, and afraid. He tells me that he drank the ample supply of water, even though it wasn't very gourmet in flavor; and it was SIX days without kibbles or any food at all before they got to him!!! The Man had known Cupcake needed him, knew that he needed to get to that basement somehow, but after a couple of days dealing with human emergencies in his neighborhood, The Man STILL could not get to the house on foot, nor in a car, no way, no how. All of Grandma's family was horrified, devastated, frightened, upset, panicked ... almost as much as Cupcake himself, he suspects. But he never lingers too long on this part of the events. Because what might have been a tragic ending to a young, furry life, instead became a sparkling opportunity...
After announcing to his family that the road was un-blocked and he was going to see what had become of the cat, The Man left his house and arrived at Grandma's place. He immediately opened the basement door, where he could see that the water had mostly retreated from the area. He called Cupcake #2's name, he craned his neck down around the stairway railing, but he saw NO SIGN of the cat. He walked the entire length and width of the un-furnished basement, barely noting the damage, noting instead that there was no sign of the cat anywhere. Feeling very sad but holding onto a teeny-tiny shred of hope, The Man prepared a small bowl of Cupcake's favorite delicacies (salmon-flavored canned food, plus a couple of crunchy treats) and a bowl of fresh, cold water. The Man put these on the top step, just where he always left them. Pondering what to do, how to find Cupcake #2 and thinking about the cat's short life, The Man was startled out of his revelry by a noise that sounded like ... well, it sounded like crunching of food! ... and was that... lapping of water on a little tongue? He shoved his chair back from where he was sitting at the desk upstairs so fast that Cupcake #2 remembers feeling weakly afraid, that maybe he should run back to safety (that top shelf had been perfect camouflage as well). But he was too exhausted. Starving and thirsting for REAL water, he practically inhaled everything put out for him, then looked up with huge, amber Ragdoll eyes for the first time directly into the face of The Man who, somehow Cupcake #2's instincts told him, was there to save him.
ONE MONTH LATER
It had been another day of unexpected-ness. But THIS day, Cupcake had known it from the moment the humans arrived at his house that morning, was special. He could feel it even in his tail, that sensation letting him know that this was somehow a ... sparkly day, a day for HIM.
A different human man and his wife had arrived at the house with the usual Man. The Wife carried a roomy, brand-new-looking, blanket-interiored cat carrier with her. Both of them took one look at the large, fluffy gray Ragdoll-mix that Cupcake #2 had become; immediately, they were ooh'ing and aaah'ing and making cooing noises to him. He was startled by these newcomers, but his instincts told him they were very good people and that their behavior was welcoming him. He hardly noticed as the Husband packed up his few meager belongings -- a catnip ball here, a small plush mouse there. Meanwhile, the Wife picked Cupcake up himself, all 14 pounds of him, and ruffled his ample coat gently... "What a big sweetie," she whispered to him. He had become as still as a rock, not being used to human handling at ALL but thinking at the same time that he just might like it.
As you can surely figure out, these were Cupcake's forever-humans, who had come to take him out of his solitary home where The Flood had nearly taken him away with its rushing water. They couldn't have been a better fit for Cupcake #2: each of his humans had always loved pets and had animals in their homes, and each especially ADORED cats. In fact, Sabrina was waiting at home to become his new, shiny, black-haired sister cat.
After bravely making acquaintance with the vet and a cat groomer who shaved ALL of his matted fur off his body and tail (It couldn't be combed or conditioned, he overheard the groomer explain to his new humans), it was time to go home. HOME! But right before he was carried inside and let out to explore, his new humans presented him with a gift, a name-tag like he'd seen other pets wear in the neighborhood. And his new Mom had a statement to make as she hung it lovingly around his neck:
"This is your new tag with a new NAME for you on it," she explained, fastening his shiny gift around his hairless neck. "You've survived more than most cats EVER even see in their lives, and you are a big boy now, a tough tomcat. So we are giving you a new name for your new life with us..." As his new Dad lifted the feline gently out of the carrier to bring him inside his forever home (a two-story house with windows everywhere (!) and lots of sunshine, blankets, and plenty of space to run and roll around), his Mom reached out to stroke his head with caring fingers and said:
Welcome to your new house, Rocky! This is where you belong, now and forever.
Blogger's note: Rocky has lived the past 16 years with that same family, and also with Sabrina, his same-aged sibling. He definitely grew into his name, in size and fluff and personality. He became a happy, healthy, playful (although always shy of strangers and never, ever a fan of water!) cat through the loving, careful, and patient attention of his new owners, to whom all of us that love him are just as grateful as he is for adopting him into their lives. And now, here's the "man," the legend himself (he's skinnier now in his older age, but still healthy and playful)...
...When we last left Cupcake #2, he was living as a young bachelor, somewhat abandoned by all humans he had known, although it had never been those humans' intention for such a fate to be Cupcake #2's. Wondering about The Man who came regularly, patrolling his territory, and napping in the warm sunshine of his very own house: all of these had to be put on hold immediately one night.
In the darkest part of the night, while Cupcake #2 was sleeping in a favorite corner of one of his house's beds, a terrible storm erupted in the skies outside. Knowing that thunder and lightning often meant hours of loud, slapping rain at the windows and howling winds, Cupcake repaired to the basement quickly. Although it had never been a favorite hang-out, it was always a safe HIDE-out for sure. Once in the basement, Cupcake tried to sleep again, but found himself awoken very soon by what seemed like a new kind of rain. In his young life, he had seen rains through the windows and screen doors, quite a few times. But THIS rain was harder, louder, taking on a life of its own it would seem, than anything the young cat had ever experienced. He didn't like it, so he spent the next hours prowling nervously. The thunderstorm went on all night long...
As morning hours began to wane, and Cupcake knew the sky would soon lighten even just a little bit, even with the rain, he realized he had not even THOUGHT about his food and water all night. Looking back now, he'll tell you it must have been some sort of Divine/Feline Intervention that caused him to race up to the top basement step; that is where The Man kept Cupcake's water and variety of foods. Having worried and prowled himself right out of energy, Cupcake recalls devouring most of his food and almost all of the water. It might have been his late-night meal that saved his life...
Because no sooner had he finished it, then he heard the leak. His basement hide-out was ... no, it couldn't... COULD IT BE? ... leaking rain down the walls, onto the floor and very rapidly into puddles!?! He didn't have much time to consider this phenomenon as more and more rain seemed to materialize from nowhere onto the walls and floors of Cupcake's hide-out. He considered going back to the upper rooms, but at the top of the stairs, he found that the door had blown shut sometime in the night, where it was usually left open just widely enough for a cat to slither through.
What to do! Cupcake didn't know what would happen or when the water would stop seeping and dripping into his basement home. So he acted quickly and instinctively and darted around searching for something he'd never had to target before: the highest, driest, most hidden spot there was. And he found it briskly, making his way up a "staircase" of sorts, a pile of plastic crates beside the washing machine... and from the washing machine onto the highest wooden shelf, made by Grandma's late husband many years before and still strong (and dry, in the center of the room).
Cupcake #2 watched the waters rise in the basement of his home for about two hours, he figures, before he fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. The water did not seem to be climbing anywhere near to him; however, it HAD climbed almost all the way to the middle of the washing and drying-human-clothes machines! This observation he made the next morning, when a bright sun shone through the window wells, apparently having melted away the storms...
Cupcake #2 opened his alert and shining eyes to behold all of the wreckage: the off-center, slightly-floating machinery! A favorite blanket of his that had been on the floor, now half-sunken, half-on-the-surface, a soggy mess of heavy material. A toy mouse, reeking of soaked catnip, sailed by. Cupcake did not take long to have the thought that he did not know how to swim. And anyway, what cat in his right mind WANTED to swim; that had always been his take on the matter. He would have done it, to survive, if he knew how, but the fact remained, that he didn't know how.
The spunky little boy-cat spent that morning exploring from the higher shelves. He dipped a paw here, a tip of the nose there, taking the temperature of things, literally and figuratively. Even if he could open that door at the top of the basement staircase, even if The Man would come and open it, even if it were standing there open right now ... How was anyone going to get to him, or him TO anyone?
It was time to use all of his cat brain power ...
(our story will be continued later today--PROMISE)
...and actually, the boy in today's story was called Cupcake #2. That was at first, when he was adopted by a very old lady, who had for many years owned cats, and always named them Cupcake. Well, Cupcake didn't know it when he was a wee kitten adopted by an old grandma in the early stages of Alzheimer's ... but he would go on to be a Father of many cat generations. I don't mean that he wasn't neutered (lol); many of us house-cats are, and he was no exception. What I mean is, his life of survival and adventure leading eventually to a wonderful forever haven, a true home after so much tumult ... I think it makes him a symbolic forefather to us younger cats!
But let's begin at the beginning! Unfortunately, Cupcake's first six months of life with Grandma were chaotic. Oh, he was well-loved by his owner, and always fed and given fresh water. Grandma had been a cat-lover and -owner for so long, the habits of caring for feline friends were well-ingrained in her memory. Sadly, it was the more recent memories that she began to lose first (alas, Grandma was my human mom's Grandma, so I will let Mom tell her own tale of life with Grandma ... I will tell the tale of the boy named Cupcake). But although Cupcake #2 was fed and watered and loved, Grandma was always unpredictable, given the ebb and flow of her mind. Sometimes she would scurry in and out of the house all day long on errands Cupcake #2 knew nothing about. Other times, she would remain inside all day, and he didn't know what the routine would be.
On Sundays, Grandma's family would come to visit. That is when the family saw that she was in failing health, and that each week she was worse. My mom rarely even saw Cupcake #2, because if he wasn't hiding from the strangers -- and everyone but Grandma was certainly a stranger -- Grandma was banishing him anyway (everyone in the family except my mom has bad cat allergies) with a brisk: "Cupcake, to the basement!" She had water and toys and food and litter for him down there, but mostly it was barren, a land of cold, unfinished floor and underground and laundry smells. It wasn't Cupcake #2's favorite place to be, but nor was being around the family. So he would spend Sunday afternoons napping in a small patch of sunlight that slipped cautiously through the above-ground window near his basement ceiling, and lapping up some food when he awoke. Soon enough, it would be time; the door would be opened, the scents and sounds of family would be gone, and Grandma would welcome him back upstairs into his world.
But then It happened... well, the first It of Cupcake's young life... one day the family arrived to find that Grandma had been making a habit of either not eating at all for a whole day (forgetting to do so) and / or preparing inappropriate meals such as canned cat food for herself. After a painful process, Grandma's family had to move her to a home where she would have help from professionals in caring for herself. Cupcake #2 of course could not accompany her there. Grandma's mind was slipping away so badly that she was incapable of remembering the sad parting after a time. But Cupcake #2 was confused and saddened by it for a great while.
Some might say that the following year or so (for no one knows or can recall the exact amount of months that passed) is when Cupcake #2 became a true adult Tomcat, a "man" on his own. He was never sure how he felt about it; being independent by nature, he was usually fine. He remained in his home, but no one else lived there, no cats or animals of any sort, and no humans either. On certain days, Cupcake #2 wasn't sure he liked being "independent" allll the time. He had been domesticated, was born of a domestic house-cat mother, among domestic litter-mates. He missed having people around, or a person at least. He even missed having a couple of cats around, as he recalled having had when he was nestled in nursing with his brothers as a baby.
There was The Man though. The Man (Grandma's son, as it turned out) came every other day and put fresh, delicious food (special kinds! treats! new flavors!) out for Cupcake #2, replenished his water, and stayed to pet and play with him if Cupcake would allow it. Usually, however, he did not allow it. After all, Cupcake didn't know The Man very well, and he didn't live with him. He appreciated the food and sustenance, but he preferred most of the time to prowl about his territory on his own. Sometimes humans could be unpredictable, that he knew somehow, instinctively.
Thus it was for many months, Cupcake #2 and The Man sort of co-habitating and co-existing. The Man came frequently, sometimes more than every other day, to do something with lots of papers and files and such. He spoke on the phone and did lots of things outside in the yard. Cupcake #2 watched all of this from behind the TV, which was warm, when The Man was inside; and he watched from a favorite bedroom window when The Man was outside.
More than once, Cupcake #2 heard The Man say his name while talking on the telephone like Grandma used to do. Cupcake #2 never completely liked the phone, because it always took attention away from him. When Grandma used to talk on it, he would meow and nuzzle and leap onto her lap, with only lukewarm petting and results for his efforts. But with The Man on the phone, and talking about HIM no less, Cupcake #2 took interest... he heard The Man asking many times what the phone thought he should do with Cupcake #2. He heard The Man say to the telephone that he felt sad that Cupcake #2 lived alone and that his own family could not allow him to live with them and their allergies. He even heard The Man begin to ask the phone if it knew someone good who might like to "take" Cupcake #2. This last bit was something the meaning of which the feline puzzled for days ...
... For days until it left his mind out of necessity. Because he had to use everything in his mind and body to survive what happened next ....
