by Dawn
(DeBary, FL)
Chimney crawled in the cat tunnel when I gave her some cat nip!
A little over four years ago, I worked for an animal shelter in Indiana, Pennsylvania. There was one particular day in which I was working and a man came in with thirteen cats that he had caught in his fields. He had seen numerous cats and set up traps so that he could bring them in to the shelter so that their owners could find them or so they could find new owners.
One such cat was a Tiffany cat, although I didn't know it at the time. When she came in, we already had over a dozen other black cats. Sadly, black cats tend to be the last to go. I was the one who got to name her. Because all of the traditional black cat names had been taken, I named her Chimney Sweep.
Chimney had been at the shelter for a couple of weeks and I had taken a special liking to her because of her sweet demeanor. There was a woman who came in and had seen her and wanted to adopt her. She seemed nice enough but I couldn't let her have her. I wanted her for myself. She's been mine ever since.
I have two cats and I call Chimney my community cat. She loves everyone. She doesn't particularly like to be held but she loves it when anyone pays attention to her. She is especially attentive when she sees that someone is going into the kitchen. She thinks she is going to be fed. She knows the sound of a wet can of cat food being opened. It doesn't matter if she is on the other end of the house, she will be at your feet meowing before you get the food out of the can.
Aside from her excitement when she thinks she is going to be fed, she is extremely lazy. She lays around all day. She doesn't play with cat toys. She likes to hide, too. She likes the cupboards in the kitchen.
At one point, she had found her way behind our pantry and was there for two days! I was worried sick. I was literally in the process of creating lost posters when we finally found her. My other cat stood outside of where Chimney was hiding and starting meowing. Chimney is the first cat I have had that was really mine and she holds a special place in my heart... and on my couch, where she spends about 90% of her time lol.
Dawn
