prairie point

sunshine

Teaser and the Firecat by Cat Stevens

One of the best companions of my childhood was a orange tomcat named Sunshine. I was five years old and we had just moved to a new house when he came calling at the kitchen door. It was Mom who made friends with him and started to feed him I guess, but he allowed my sister and I to play with him. I don’t know how old he was; he could have been a kitten then, but I always remember him as an adult cat.

There was another cat we played with too - a grey cat. My sister favored the grey and I liked Sunshine. One day we took a pair of scissors and cut off the grey cat’s whiskers. You’ll be glad to know we got a scolding for that. I don’t remember the grey cat coming around after that though.

Sunshine was really a feral cat. We didn’t have a lot of money to spare for veterinary bills so he never had shots or a license. I don’t remember him getting to spend much time indoors either. But when I would go outside to play he would come up to me. Thinking about that now it is kind of interesting, because I can’t imagine any of the cats I have now ever coming up to a child. On the contrary they are terrified whenever a child comes into the house.

Evidently Sunshine had a territory and maybe even other homes. At least he wasn’t always in our yard. As I got older I remember seeing him less and less. The last time I remember seeing him was one summer afternoon when I was about fifteen and trying to practice my batting alone by throwing up baseballs and hitting them. He was getting old then and was showing scars from the fights that tomcats inevitably get into. By that time too I had a new favorite, a black and white puppy we named Panda because he looked like a panda bear.

Posted by Bill Hopkins on September 3, 2003 05:28 PM