199? - May 5, 2002

Rudy was an abandoned stray that became a treasured member of our family in early 2000. He would show up in the backyard of our Portland home nearly every day. If one of us happened to be out there, you could be sure that before long a periscope-like orange tail would be spotted heading our way through the tall grass. He wasn't the least bit shy and always came right up to us meowing and purring all the while.

Pam called him 'Lover boy' because he was so friendly, and we assumed he belonged to someone in the neighborhood. He seemed to get along well with our 2 females Yodi and Cleo, so while we didn't feed him or encourage him to hang around, neither did we make any effort to run him off. Soon, though we noticed him in the yard at night too and it began to occur to us that he might not have a home. I wasn't too keen on bringing him into the house since we had no idea how the girls would react to his being in their 'inner sanctum'. We also didn't know if he had had any experience being an indoor cat.

I think it was at this point that I actually picked him up and took a good look at him. We found that he had been both neutered and declawed. We couldn't understand how someone could go to all that trouble and expense and then turn him out when he was essentially defenseless.

We didn't have the heart to leave him out in the rain, so we brought him inside on a trial basis - if he didn't work out, at least we tried and he could always go to the animal shelter later.

It couldn't have turned out better. Yodi and Cleo seemed to like the idea of a 'little brother', and he acted almost as though he knew he was low-man-on-the-totem pole and deferred to them. We were captivated by how polite - for lack of a better word - he was. At mealtimes he would sit by his bowl and quietly wait for food while the other two jostled and fought to get to the head of the chow line. His personality was almost canine too, in that he would follow us everywhere. Basically he was a dog in a cat's body.

Before long he won a spot on the permanent roster and got a new name. I had taken to calling him 'Evinrude' because his purr sounded like a boat motor . . . a loud boat motor. Pam shortened that to Rudy and the handle stuck.

Here in Oroville, Rudy was in cat heaven. He loved sitting on the deck and watching the hummingbirds, and chasing after the small lizards that are native to the area. He liked to play in the orange trees too - the branches are low to the ground and they were easy for him to climb.

We lost our small friend in May 2002 when he was hit by a car on the road in front of our house. We both have had pets before and since Rudy, but none quite like our 'purring dog'.

       ©2002-2006 Gene and Pam Leis