Pyewacket came into my life one evening when Don and I went to see a friend who's cat had just had a litter of kittens. Since I was friendly with the queen, I wanted to see what she had brought into the world - the mother was solid black, and from the looks of the litter, she had found a Siamese to breed with, because of 8 kittens, 7 had the markings of a Sealpoint siamese, and only one was different - a black and white "cow" kitty.
As I was looking at the litter, I suddenly heard a little voice in my head say "Daddy" - and as soon as I heard that, the first words out of my mouth were "Awww shit, I've been picked" - believe me, adding another cat to my existing menagerie was the last thing on my mind at the time, however when something like this happens, there really is no choice.
Some 6 weeks later, while Don was out of town visiting relatives, she arrived at the house along with one of her littermates, who ostensibly was just visiting until I could get her to a friend's house in Griffin, Georgia. At this point, my menagerie of two dogs and two cats became a zoo.
A quick word of advice here for anyone contemplating "temporarily" boarding a cat for a friend - don't do it unless you're planning on keeping the cat. Inevitably, something happens and they can't take the cat and your household just increased by one permanent house guest.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand - Pyewacket - I chose this name for a couple of reasons - first, I loved the name - I first came across it in my teens, while doing research for a term paper on witchcraft in the 1600's; in a reproduction of a woodcut from that time, the scene showed Matthew Hopkins questioning two accused witches, having them name their familiars - the name was also used in a classic film "Bell, Book & Candle", starring Kim Novak, Jimmy Stewart, Elsa Lancaster, Jack Lemmon and other screen notables, as Kim Novak's familiar. Second, what better name for a familiar than Pyewacket?
She and I bonded from the start - this was evidenced by a number of things, mainly the fact that I could and did speak to her as you would a human, and she understood me.
When I moved from an apartment into a rental house and she became indoor/outdoor, this became more and more evident - at the time, I was working third shift and didn't have a car - I came home one morning and had forgotten to stop off and get cat food.
Normally, not a big issue, however apparently Pye was hungry and was rather adamant about letting me know this. I looked at her and said "Pye, Daddy's tired and just wants a nap for a little bit - I promise I'll go get food after I wake up - is that okay?"
Apparently, it wasn't, because she kept on meowing, insisting that she was hungry and wanted her food *NOW*. I got frustrated, and said to her "look, if you're that damn hungry, go out and catch something" and opened the back door - she proceeded to march out the back, tail held high...and about 3 steps from the back door, went immediately into a hunter's crouch, turned her head back to shoot a withering glare at me, went back to the crouch, and then within seconds, nabbed a bird.
My only reaction to that scene was to say to her "Baby girl, if I'd known you were really that hungry, I'd have gone to the store".
Another time, she brought home a dead garter snake for a present - I looked at her and said "Sweetie, Daddy appreciates the present, but I have no use for a dead snake - if you're going to bring me a snake, it should be alive" - well, the very next day she presented me with, you guessed it, a live garter snake. I ended up keeping the snake until it was well (there were puncture marks from her teeth) and released it back into the wild.
These are only two anecdotes from my life with her - there are a score of others, however I think these two best illustrate why I say she was special.
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