As the days passed, I continued to watch for the mysterious black cat I had earlier come across. I hadn’t seen him since that morning, until one sunny, yet chilly afternoon. My sister, Amanda, had been heading into the living room when something outside in the driveway caught her eye. She called me to the door to take a look, and sure enough, it was that same black, skinny, freezing cat. I instantly opened the door and started to call him inside. He was hesitant, of course, but after a few minutes of quietly and calmly coaxing him, I had him inside. The poor cat was skinny as could be, shivering, and had a tail not of fur, but bird ox. He had small pieces of ice stuck to his foot pads and his belly fur, even spots of his back. He was nervous, because there were three other cats sitting in the hall either hissing or growling at him. I asked my mom to get me a towel and I wrapped it around him, picked him up and took him to the stairs where we keep the cat dishes. He ate a little, drank a little, and ate then some more. This soon became his routine when there was food (eat, drink, eat, finish). After about 10 minutes, he had cleaned out all 3 cat dishes. Poor fellow hadn’t eaten real food since who knows when. My mom had told me when I brought him into the house, that we weren’t keeping him, so I figured I’d name him, the first step to giving him a permanent home. I didn’t know what to call him, he was all black, and I didn’t want to call him Blackie, due to the fact that our previous pet (a black lab) was named that and she had only recently passed away about two years before.

I went through numerous possible names, but none of them seemed to fit. I then somehow got thinking about Harrison Ford. Alot of people named their animals after him, I didn’t want to call him Harrison, because it was too long, so I settled on Ford. The cat seemed to like it. By this time, mom had put on supper and Ford had relaxed enough to go explore different parts of the house. Our house is fairly small so it was easy to find him. My sister and I went upstairs to see if he had any open cuts, possible diseases, and ticks. (My sister Courtney was studying Pre-Veterinarian at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College). We found him lying on my bed taking a nap, so we waited until he was awake. We then made sure if it was male or female. He wasn’t neutered, so it was relatively easy. Since it was the weekend, we had to wait another day or two until we could take him to the veterinary clinic and get him checked professionally, and have the bird ox removed from his tail. That night, Ford slept with me, on my bed, cuddled up by my legs for the whole night. He didn’t go back outside until we took him to the vet the next day.

When we got back from the vet, Ford was much better, his tail fur was still in tact, and despite the fact that he had ear mites and bald spots from the ice, he didn’t seem to upset. I found out what he had been eating to survive while he was homeless. One of our other cats had vomited on the kitchen floor, and Ford began to eat it. It took him about a month to get used to not eating vomit, or other type of, well, ‘non edible food.’ We were always constantly reassuring him that he didn’t have to worry about never having food, because there would always be some for him. Ford didn’t really know how to wash himself either. We noticed him watching the other cats, and then copying what they were doing. His meow was raspy, and you could barely hear it. He didn’t say much at first, but after the first couple of months he sounded much better. He didn’t purr. He still doesn’t purr all that much, when he did it was very low, and almost silent. I’ve had Ford for about two years now; it’ll be three years in January. Over time, he’s improved with everything. He’s more social, and less nervous. He can still be vicious at times though (I’ve got a scar to prove it). He doesn’t like to have his paws touched, and enjoys a stomach rub only when he wants it, which is usually late at night when you’re trying to sleep. He’s got manners though, if you sneeze, he’ll meow afterwards, as if he’s say “bless you”. He also lets the ladies in the house go first when it comes to going outside or coming in. Except for when it comes to supper time. Then he’ll sit there and meow like there’s no tomorrow. He also drinks from the toilet. Wetting his paws to test the water first, then drinking a large amount, and leaving the toilet seat wet. It sure wakes you up at three in the morning though.

Ford’s also a sensitive cat. If I go to a friend’s for the night, he got upset with me. You could tell this upset him by the way he acted. At times it’s really cute, If I go away for the weekend, when I come back, and ask how he was, I’ll be told that at some point over the weekend, he would wander around looking for me. We’re like two peas in a pod. If I tell him I was going somewhere, he usually gave me the cold shoulder-turned around and walked away. He was not happy when he found out that I was accepted to Acadia University. You probably think this is ridiculous, but it’s true. He understands these things. Every time I mentioned anything about moving out, he would head outside and take off down the dirt road or into the woods behind the house, not to be seen again until hours later. Now that I’m here at Acadia, I miss him terribly. I know he misses me too because my mom and sister have told me that numerous times, he’ll walk around looking for me. He acts differently, and when somebody mentions my name, his ears perk up and he listens to what their saying. I find myself often thinking about Ford, and how much I miss him and how much I love him.