Long walks, and other unusual behavior by Missy Kitty

The cat at our house, Missy Kitty, is no ordinary cat.

But, then, do you know any cat -- any cat at all -- that is ordinary?

Missy Kitty was adopted from Safe Harbor about seven years ago. Folks at Safe Harbor didn't have a lot of information about Missy Kitty's background. They estimated she was about a year old, and they said it appeared she had already produced one litter of kittens. When we adopted Missy Kitty, the week before Fourth of July, she was recovering from being spayed, her bare, hairless tummy still showing a scar.

The cat displayed certain behaviors that made us wonder and speculate about Missy Kitty's previous short life.

For example, Missy Kitty from time to time would move dry food from her food dish to her water dish, producing a gooey, but clean, glob of food. We wondered if maybe she had been raised by raccoons.

And then there is her pop-up behavior when she is outdoors and needs to see over something. Missy Kitty sits on her hind legs and pops up with her front paws daintily folded across her chest. Like a prairie dog. Was she, possibly, adopted at some point by prairie dogs?

Shorty after she came to rule our household, Missy Kitty showed another side of her not-ordinary behavior. She likes to go on walks. If my wife and I walk around the neighborhood, Missy Kitty is right there. At one time, I was walking four miles most every morning, two miles to what was then Brenda's Cafe on Morgan Oak for coffee and two miles home.

One morning I got to the top of the hill almost a quarter of a mile from the house when I caught a glimpse of Missy Kitty at my heels. But she was tuckered. I could tell by the way she was sprawled in the grass next to the street, panting from exertion.

Here's the thing: If I kept walking to Brenda's, would Missy Kitty follow? And would she (A) safely navigate downtown traffic and (B) have enough stamina to walk home?

I didn't want her to follow me the rest of the way, but since neither Missy Kitty nor I claim to be bilingual, it was impossible to get that message across. So I picked the cat up and carried her home. She purred all the way.

Now we live in a neighborhood that is ideal for walking. There is very little traffic, and there are sidewalks everywhere. I try to make it around almost a mile several mornings each week. For a long time it worked well for Missy Kitty to come in to her food-water-milk smorgasbord while I went on my walk.

But a few weeks ago Missy Kitty apparently sensed I was going for a walk. She refused to come inside. After I had been walking a few minutes I looked back. Sure enough, there was Missy Kitty, trotting along to keep up. She followed me every step of the way, pausing occasionally to check out a squirrel or some birds.

It was still fairly cold when she went on her first Big Walk. A few days ago I went for a walk in the heat, and Missy Kitty tagged along. By the time we had made our circumnavigation of the neighborhood, she was ready to call it quits. When she got inside the front door, instead of heading for her food in the laundry room, Missy Kitty flopped down on the cool hardwood floor. And stayed there for a long, long time.

All of which makes us wonder. Was Missy Kitty brought up by dogs?

Or what about Missy Kitty's strange behavior after she eats and tries to cover her food? Back when she had direct access through a cat door to her food, she would bring leaves into the garage and rake them over her food dish. In the laundry room, she goes through the motions with imaginary leaves.

Was she raised by squirrels?

There are questions in this life that are true puzzlers. Some of these questions will never have answers. In her short life, Missy Kitty has given us much to ponder.

And she had given us boundless love and affection. And companionship, even on long walks.

Joe Sullivan is the retired editor of the Southeast Missourian.