Martha's Story

 Yesterday I told you how a cat ended up living here. I think he cast a spell on my mom! He was not here for two whole days before Mom was considering names. Not knowing if the kitten was a boy or a girl was a problem.

Everybody was eager to help Mom solve the mystery. All the men in the park came in to check the underside of the kitten. I would have been indignant!! So rude! Anyway, all of the men decided that the kitten was a girl.

Mom has a good friend named Martha. Martha was not in the park that weekend. She had gone to meet her new granddaughter. Oscar said he heard them talking about grandchildren and names. Oscar said he liked to hover near the door when Mom and Martha were chatting over coffee every Saturday and Sunday. This particular time they were talking about the fact that none of their children had named a child after them. Martha's new one was not going to be named after her and Mom says that she would have to wait for a great-grand! Whatever that is!

So, Mom decided to "honor" Martha with a namesake in the form of a cat. Oscar found this to be funny. He said he wondered just who would consider this an honor! Martha is also an animal lover, having dogs of her own.

The tiny kitten grew fast, thanks to Mom's care. One day about two weeks after he came to live here, he bit the nipple off his bottle! Oscar said he heard Mom ask Martha what he was doing and then she was in the kitchen looking for a saucer to pour his formula in. He says she grabbed a Chinese food container, too. She gets these when Dad brings home take-out. She loves these containers and will proclaim their virtues if she can find someone to listen. Seems she like the fact that they are rectangles and just the right size for leftovers and can stack neatly in the fridge, as well as the cupboard and the very best part .... they are free! See what I mean? She calls them Chinese Tupperware. I still have no idea what that is, this Tupperware.

She put cat litter in the container and formula in the saucer and put them both on the floor by the kitten bed that was actually a box with a blanket. He heard her tell the kitten to feed himself and then take care of business in the pan of litter. Then walked outside to garden. We both snickered when we got to "take care of business" part. Why does she say that?

Martha complied with Mom's suggestions and received much praise when Mom came back in. Mom always gets excited when we do what we are told to do. Oscar says this is when Mom started taking Martha outside with her. Martha would follow Mom's every step and would fall asleep in one of her gardens while she worked. Martha never ran into the road. He was, in fact, afraid of the sound of engines. He still is, though he hides it well.

Martha lived in the store. Mom put a kennel in the store and his litter pan and food and water were in the store. He came in the house and played with the dogs, Oscar says he could jump higher than any of them even as a little thing. He would make all of the dog's crazy, then jump up on something higher than they could reach and just stare at them. They hated him for that.

One day Martha was on the couch with Dad and he was tickling Martha when all of a sudden, he called out to Mom. Mom appeared out of nowhere, "what's wrong?" she asked. Dad said "Martha has balls!" Oscar says Mom was unfazed and said, "You are right about that, Tom says she does!" He said, "No, not that Martha, I am talking about the cat!"

So, Martha was a boy! So many thing come to my mind about this. I asked Oscar if Martha got to keep his testicles, cause us dogs didn't. I am still a little miffed that I wasn't even consulted about this. Eddie and Bo still have all the equipment they came with! Mom keeps telling me to be patient, that as soon as Covid is over we will be addressing issues such as that. 

Another thing about this, how dumb are  all those men? Oscar and I shared a good laugh about that. Mom never claimed to know if Martha was a boy or girl. Oscar says that Dad was so worried that Martha was a girl's name and that Mom would have to change it. Mom said "absolutely not, he knows his name and it is Martha!" 

Martha still accompanies Mom to her gardens from time to time. He grew to be quite large and fat. He is bigger than any of us dogs. He sleeps a lot, but he can move quite fast, especially given how fat he is. I have already told you that he will bring us dogs treats from time to time. 

I have a taste for mice and rabbit. He left a rabbit hind quarter for me not long after I swallowed that mouse whole. This time Mom did take it away from me. It was too big to swallow whole and I didn't feel particularly spry that day. I know I could have run, but what was the point? I knew she would catch me eventually, so I just succumbed and let her take it from me. She is relentless!

This is Martha's story. If you might be wondering how he got so fat, it might be all the hunting he does at night. Oh, he still gets his cat kibble, Mom keeps his feeder full. She calls it a self feeder and it holds a lot of kibble. Oscar told me the reason for a self feeder. He says that when Mom and Dad take a trip, they leave Martha here! Mom says us dogs are enough to handle. Fine by me!

Martha lives in the house, he, in fact goes anywhere he wants. He can leap to the top of the fence and go outside our yard! I think he does this to show off. He has done this so many times, the only dog impressed by this is Mr. BoJangles.