So I saw a thread in a section about a racoon stealing doormats, and it got me thinking about a cat we used to have (
).
In the late 80s and early 90s, my family lived in Japan. Misawa AFB. For the first month or two that we were there, we had to live off base in some...uh...distinctly...in a distinctly Japanese area, let's say. Big house for the area, I suppose. Dirt "streets," lots of little Japanese old ladies jabbering at me. I didn't understand it then, but apparently not many Japanese have ever seen natural blonde hair/blue eyes before. At the time at least. As a kid it was creepy! People feeling your hair all the time. Jabbering.
ANYWAY.
So I used to live in Japan. Living in that house, we found a cat on our doorstep, and my parents adopted him. They found the owner of the cat, and managed to get the story out of them. They didn't want him anymore, so they drove to the ocean, tied a wire around one of his front paws (I never understood that), and left him there. The cat then found his way back to our neighborhood, and onto our door step. We named him Harvard, or Harvey. My dad called him R.V. Recreational Vehicle.
(As a side story, I'll never forget the toilet in that place. It was the same as an...uh...American one, except it had a FAUCET on top of the tank! Whenever you flushed the thing, water would poor out the faucet, into the tank, and then into the bowl! WTF!)
After a few months we moved back on base; nice little neighborhood. Lotsa houses around us, mostly officers that my dad worked with. Now, normal Outside Cats will bring their owners presents. You know. Mice. Rats. Rabbits. Ground squirrels. Other noise-making presents to scare the bejeebers out of you at 3 in the morning.
But Harvey?
He would bring home Pot Holders.
It was, and still remains, a mystery where he got these things from. There wasn't a landfill or other garbage pile anywhere near where we lived. But, as God as my witness, that awesome, awesome cat would find and bring back Pot Holders for us.
I miss that cat.
