My Shipmate!

Now that Luna is over her tiff....and I am back warmly snuggled up in the covers again in the aft cabin...I have had some time to think of a good topic to add to the blog here.

Right now we are having some of Al Gore's Global Warming, coldest day of the year, and it makes for a good excuse to stay indoors. Frady is setting the example by staying very close to his new best buddy....the portable oil filled radiator that is cranking out about 250 degrees Fahrenheit. I keep expecting to smell the aroma of burning cat fur and a sudden onset of feline howling but so far all is well as he has the safe distance computed to a very fine tolerance.

Watching said cat in his slumbers reminded me of the topic I needed to address.

He is just a cat....a critter....a feline....a big pain in the butt....independent....arrogant and aloof at times....a great hunter, fisher, and crabber. He climbs trees as if he were a squirrel...and generally leads a pretty good life now. Best of all....he is my buddy.

For a while at Matthews Point Marina, he was on not such a good lick.

He got abandoned twice, once by a young lady, and a second time by a middle aged hippy fellow.

Frady survived by catching his own dinner, helping himself to any unsecured cat food or dog food that he found. Al Becker, the Dockmaster there fed the little critter even if he did not adopt him full time.

All the while, Frady was at risk from some Redneck goobers whose manhood was challenged by the presence of a mere cat. One htated the fact he had not shot the cat as soon as he was known to be living on his own. Another threw a music CD case at the little guy while the cat was sleeping on the dinette settee one night. The third found good humor in his two big dogs chasing the cat.

The local dogs chased him and our living at the end of the long dock made him vulnerable to all manner of visiting dogs. But he coped, he developed a very first rate situational awareness and always kept a bolt hole or tree close at hand for those kinds of encounters.

Since moving to the marina here in Wilmington, his lifestyle has improved. He has the Cape Fear River for fishing, the river bank for his hunting, and a full twenty-thirty acre woodlot to roam in.

The Marina Office has a resident cat, and the folks that have boats on our dock are careful to keep their dogs from chasing the cat. The one danger here will be the two alligators....one a nine footer. I fear curiosity might just be the end of Ol' Frady if he gets to nosing around something like that.

Any way....what led me to this post is thinking of the sheer pleasure I get out of hearing the clacking of cat hooves on the wooden dock boards as Frady bounds along the dock as he trots to and from the boat. I love to hear that kathumping as he runs along with his tail up and left....happy as a clam.



He comes running when I drive in the parking lot with the pickup....follows me like a puppy when I walk over to the office for my showers...waits on top of the deck railing while I shower....and generally acts like my best buddy. We have our routines....he expects and demands I open the cat door for him as if I was a Hotel Doorman but will use it by himself if I am not here.

He tells time like a Rolex....5:30 PM is dinner time....and don't be a minute late!

The one draw back is he has to be shanghai'ed in order to get him out sailing. He is fine after he accepts the fact he is afloat and cannot get off the boat...but as soon as you get within launching distance....he jumps ship and heads ashore on unauthorized liberty.

He does know how to communicate. I bought a laser light....Cat's go bonkers chasing laser dots don't they?

I turned the laser on...pointed it at the floor then a bulkhead....and Frady sat there with a very bored look on his face...which said without any doubt...."Yeah Right! Laser my butt! Who do you think you're fooling?" He had it figured out from the first instant I turned it on.

Among sailor's worldwide there is a bonding process that occurs while crewing aboard a vessel.

I know he is just a cat....but he is my Shipmate!