Shadow and His Funny ways

When I was a little girl, at the ripe age of nine, I got a cat.

It had been some months since my dog got loose and was hit by a car. It was my first pet and I was heartbroken. Every time someone mentioned his name or showed me his picture, I would cry. I lost my first furry best friend.

My mom and my Nana had an idea.

The neighbor lady next door worked at a local animal hospital. One day someone dropped off a box with a few kittens inside. The neighbor lady waited for the kittens to get old enough for people to adopt. Well, as it was told to me, there was one kitten left. This little kitten was all black! He was all black and had little yellow eyes with big black kitten ears. The reason he was last is because a lot of people were superstitious. People thought that black cats were bad luck and this kept the kitten from getting a good home.

A week after my 9th birthday, the neighbor lady came to my house. In her hands was a brown, cardboard box. This box was in the shape of a home with little round holes cut out on the side. You could hear something rustling inside the box. She sat the box down and opened the lid. When she did, I fell in love. Out popped this little brownish black head with big yellow eyes. He gave me such a cute little meow to let me know he was there. As she left, my Nana and I sat there and tried to find a name for the kitten.

Blackie?

I didn't like that name.

Midnight?

Too common.

Shadow?

I paused and worked the name around my mouth and brain. Shadow. As I tested it out, his little black ears turned to and fro listening to his name. His name! And my nana chuckled. She recalled a radio drama that she remembered called “The Shadow Knows.” That day, every time I call Shadow, his little head and ears would move to the sound of my voice. I watched the funny little kitten try to reach the chords dangling from the ceiling fan... Even though they were way above his head! As he got bigger and older, I realized he was not a normal cat.

You always hear of cats liking fish and poultry, right? That wasn't exactly the case for this cat.

One day, my grandpa was in the kitchen cooking breakfast. Shadow had a habit of escaping from the second floor of our house and hiding downstairs with my grandparents. So my nana called upstairs to our floor and told us that Shadow was sitting downstairs with her and she was sent him back upstairs when he needed to use his litter box.

When I came downstairs, I was surprise by this curious sight. My grandpa was making scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast. And where was Shadow? Why, he was sitting in a chair at the table. He sat there in all black as if he was a guest waiting for his meal to be served. And as soon as my grandpa had finished making cooking, he would say “Get down Shadow, your breakfast is over here.” and motion to a small spot in the floor not too far from the stove. And this cat, was much smarter than what most people would think, would get down and sit down where the food was and eat happily. He also would eat things that most people don't see cats eat. He loved melon. Especially cantaloupe. You can leave sardines out or salmon... He wouldn't touch it. But leave a shrimp out. It would disappear like a magic act. Popcorn, frozen corn, buttered corn, corn chips... If corn was involved, he most likely ate it. And to all of our surprise, oatmeal.

He loved oatmeal. But he didn't want it plain! He wanted it with all the trimmings. The pinch of butter, sugar and cream. He wanted his oatmeal and cream of wheat just like we ate it. Whenever Nana would make those breakfast cereals, she would put some in an empty, leftover butter tub and send it upstairs for Shadow, all flavored up just for him.

Cheese flavored pretzels? He loved them. Peanut butter and jelly on wheat bread? Sharing is caring! Oatmeal granola bars that were hard and crunchy? I sat mine on a napkin on my bed one time, and heard something chewing beside me. Three guesses what that was!

He was the first cat I ever seen turned his nose up at chicken, turkey and sausage. But if you went grocery shopping and sat ten bags in the kitchen floor, he could find the bag with the deli ham in it.

He also like crackers. But not regular saltines. He liked buttery crackers or multigrain crackers. He like chunks of cheese and even started liking pineapple... It confused us too!

But even with all the Shadow’s quirks, He was still my lovable cat. My lovable cat that would lay on my back whenever I would be lying in bed. The same lovable cat that will lay at the foot of my mom's bed when she had migraine headaches. This was the same lovable black cat that would lay in the middle of my homework if I have been stuck on a page for too long.

Yes indeed, Shadow was not a normal cat but he was lovable nonetheless.

After sharing this story, I find it would be helpful to go back and give some detail. I had a Dalmatian that was given to me when I was seven for Christmas. He was my puppy and I named him Sparky. When I was eight, I came home to find my puppy was not in the backyard. So, we looked for him. We searched all over the neighborhood and drove around looking for my puppy. But we didn't find him.

We later found out that someone let him off of his chain. He apparently got a loose and was around the corner. There was a family who had a fenced in yard one street over. The matriarch of the family tried to get him into the enclosure so she could see his tag and call the owners. Sparky, not being used to unfamiliar faces, spooked like a petrified horse. When this happened, he ran into the street and as we were told, was hit by a car.

My puppy didn't make it.

Months later, the lady who lived next door to us worked at a local animal hospital and gave us a call. Someone had come and dropped off a box with kittens in it. She told us that she thought I would like one but only if our family was not superstitious or allergic.

Lucky for me, I was neither. She told my mom that we had to wait until the kitty was weaned from bottle milk and able to eat solid food on his own. A week after my 9th birthday, that's when Shadow entered our family.

Another fact of the story is that the woman that helped me name my kitty has passed on. She was 84 when she succumbed to cancer in September of 2014. And the other fact in the story, Shadow live to the ripe old age of 18 and a half before he unfortunately had to be put to sleep and cross the rainbow bridge. He had gotten unable to make it to his litter box and was partially deaf by this time. It was a hard decision that hurts me to this day. He took his last breath in November of 2015.

Since then, we’ve had cats almost nonstop. The current members of the family are Missy, age 14 that is a little Russian Blue with big green eyes and loves chicken. Tya (tie-ah), age 7.5 that is a tabby. She loves he toys and loves to cuddle on your belly and chest. Then you have Domino, age 6 that is a 16 lbs, community/ family tuxedo cat that loves playing with bottle tops and lounging in my mom's bed.