About two weeks before the time of relocating to Texas, a kitten (Friskie) showed up in the driveway, out in the rain, meowing at the top of her voice.  She was from a litter of feral kittens living under the house.  About a year earlier, Friskie's mother, while still a small kitten, had taken up residence on the chassis of the pickup-truck and had been riding around town.  The kitten had once been seen next to the truck in the grocery store parking-lot, and then she ran under the truck and mysteriously disappeared.  Ann, the next door neighbor, was aware of the kitten living on the truck and had mentioned this.  However, the idea of a kitten not being too terrified to remain under the loudly running truck was hard to believe, until the kitten was spotted near the truck a second time, in a different parking-lot.

 

Ann usually fed and looked after the neighborhood cats.  Friskie’s mother turned out to be exceptionally beautiful and lived at Ann’s house.  Before Friskie’s litter was born, two other litters had to be captured and taken to the animal shelter.  Friskie was very cute, and had apparently been slightly tamed by Ann’s family.  Therefore, catching her wasn’t difficult.  She was small enough to walk through the mesh of a chain-link fence, and after passing through the fence, she was immediately accosted by a midsized dog.  Friskie didn’t panic but just bowed up, soaking wet, and hissed at the dog.  Apparently, she had inherited her mother’s boldness.  Friskie appeared to be about a month old at the time.

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Our family had always liked cats, and dad needed a new one.  However, he felt that, due to his age and declining health, he wouldn't be around long enough to warrant taking on a new pet.  Fortunately for Friskie, her obvious destiny was to either be taken to Texas for whatever life awaited or be taken to the animal shelter.  The animal shelter seemed like the worst option, so she was adopted as a new pet for dad.  Once taken in and successfully weaned, she naturally fell in love with the guitar. 

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On the drive to Texas, the clutch linkage on the old truck broke, and we spent the night in a parking lot.  Friskie stayed caged under an upside down laundry basket while the tools were unloaded to rig the linkage well enough to finish the trip.  Both a Walmart and Home Depot were within a few blocks of the truck’s location, so acquiring the necessary materials to rig the linkage was possible.  The trip and transition were quite an experience for Friskie.