My list of things to be grateful for would not be complete without including Ike. No, not the hurricane ... although Hurricane Ike is the reason I'm grateful for Ike the Cat.
Everyone knows the story of how my friend Cindy and I threw this ragged, homeless cat into a carrier and drove him back to Houston a day before the storm surge covered the Island, but not everyone knows ABOUT Ike.
We have reasons to be grateful for him, but the most interesting thing about him is how grateful he is to us and how trusting he is. From the minute we locked him in the carrier, he knew to trust us.
He must have been terrified when I left him at the vet. He was locked in a cage, in the dark with no electricity and a horrible hurricane raging outside. I can't even imagine what was going through his little mind, but he was grateful to be alive. When the vet opened after the storm, I drove around downed trees and power lines to pick him up. We let him live on the back patio and in the garage ... gave him food and water and a litter box. He was grateful and did not ever make a mess.
After a few weeks, we bought him a bed. The next day, he was sleeping in his new bed ... grateful for a soft place to rest for the first time in his life. He slept so hard when he first came here. Living on the streets, he'd never been able to relax. Shortly after the bed, I gave him a toy mouse to keep him company in the garage. "Mousy" stayed in his bed untouched.
It snowed last December and I couldn't get the garage warm enough, so that was Ike's time to move into the house. I trimmed his nails, gave him a bath, blew his fur dry, set up his bed and litter box and he's been a perfectly behaved cat ever since. He loves "his room" and, after some lessons, he started to play with a little toy ball. The game has now extended to chasing Mousy and his personality has really bloomed.
It's been interesting to watch him change from a scared, homeless cat into a VERY grateful member of our little zoo. THIS is the face of gratitude!
