Charlie thinks he is a dog. He is a character. Charlie escaped from the house as I was trying to get another cat inside. He has a partner in crime.  One of my other cats wil pretend that she wants in and Charlie is standing right behind me at the door.  When I open the door she walks away and Charlie runs right between my legs.  Those two play together all the time.  She lunges at him and pretends to bit her.  All this time she is growling.  Charlie loves it but he doesn't pretent to bite.  He actually bites her.  She jumps off the couch or the bed and he is in tow.  They do this in the early morning hours and do it for hours.

Now that Charlie is out he runs from me becasue e doesnt' understand why the firls can go out but he can't.. We play his game of follow me.  He makes sure that I am keeping an eye on him and so stays just far enough away that I can't grab him.  Of course it is in the dark and there are three other cats that look very similar to him.  One is his birth mother and his two half siblings from the litter his mother had the year after his birth.  They all get into the act and follow me like the Pied Piper.  Charlie is afraid of them because he doesn't know them and so the adventure takes hours.

Finally after hours of looking and following I give up and go inside and go to bed.  He does have a place to go if it happened to rain or get too cold.  He didn't know about it this time though.

The next day I go out and look and can't find him anywhere.  I go to sit with Duke (our Dog) on the ramp leading to our front porch and ask him where Charlie is.  Duke just gives me this dumb stare like what are you talking about.  So I sit there for about 10 minutes and I hear a squeeky kind of noise.  That is how Charlie snores!!  His snore gave him away. 

I follow the snoring and find that he is under the bathtub in between the outside wall and the inside wall.  We have it on the front of the house as a planter.  I try to coax him out and the more tht I reach into the small space he begins to back up to go the other direction away from me.  So I get my husband to get a stick and push it through so that he has no choice but to come to me.  I finally get him and he doesn't make an efforts to get out of my arms.  He is one tired pussy cat.  I have no idea how long or when he got into that small space but it must have been one heck of an adventure getting there.  I suppose it was one of the male cats that are not neutered that chased or scared him into that space.  This is the main reason why he is not allowed outside.

I bring him in and he hides for days.  Then he finally shows up in the room and comes and sits on my lap.  He never did this before and I have had him since he was born.  He was promised to someone who back out of the arrangement so I ended up keeping him. 

He is beautiful!  He is very shy though.  All the other kittens were very active and would come to me whenever I let them out for exercixe or feeding or to clean their area.  He wouldn't.  He would cower down in the very back of the crate and I would have to get almost my whole body in there to reach for him.  He was a tough one to get socialized.  He was so scared even when his litter mates where outgoing and very sociable.  It took some extra love and attention for this kittly.  I was going to call him little guy, but he wasn't little.  In fact he was the only one that actualy had a real body mass.  All his litter mates were skinny and small.  When you picked up Charlie you felt lke you were actually picking up something.  Being as I was spending extra time with him I became attatched.  I didn't have a male cat and wanted one, so we ended up keeping him.

Well after trying to keep him in for a second time, he and his partner in crime do it again!  This time I am putting her in and he jumps right over my arms.  Unlike the first time when it was warm this time it is very cold outside.

We do the follow me games and he disappears into the night.  I go inside and watch and hear for his meow's and nothing that whole night.  He still hasn't figured out that he can go under the house.  Maybe it is because all the other cats go in there to eat.  My crawlspace is rather large and at the futhest end I can almost stand up.  I have a table of sorts there with a few dishes for food and water and a light hanging off some of the old pipes we no longer use. I have a 100 watt bulb in it and it is bright there but it is the wrmth that I am after.  It prevents the water from freezing and they can get water there that is fresh.  It only keeps it just above freezing there.

I get up the next morning and still cannot find Charlie.  I look hard all over the yard, under the house, around the house up trees and under that tub and he is nowhere to be found.  We live in the woods and there are brush piles everywhere for the woodland animals to have homes and safe places to hide from the cats.  I cannot go looking into them because we also have snakes and I don't want to disturb any of them if you understand what I mean!

He is nowhere to be found.  Not even under the bath tub.  I look and look and call out and not a sign of him.  It is kind of difficult though with just me walking around because I am the Pied Piper of Glenwood Forest--or at least in my part of the woods.  All the cats that l have around me--well they all follow me and look all kinds of places like I do.  It's funny to watch.  When I call , they call and what ever direction that I look in, they also look in the same direction.  When I walk around, they walk right beside me--eveywhere.

This isn't working so I go inside and another night passes.  The next day is a nice one and it is warm and sunny.  I try looking for him again and calling for him with my entourage in tow.  Still by evening I cannot find him.  Now thoughts of him getting hit by a car or that someone else got him and or another bigger animal got ahold of him start passing through my mind and I get a bit nervous.

Finally I sit down on the deck in a chair and wonder and think of all the places that he might me.  Then I see him pop up his head from under the ramp that leads to our porch, like I haven't looked there a hundred times already.  Duke is standing there.  He and Duke sniff each other and Charlie touch his nose to Duke's nose.  I go to get Charlie and the little bugger runs away.  Grrrrr.  So I sit back down and watch.  Within a few minutes here comes Charlie from the driveway to meet Duke again.  This time I let them love each other up with the kisses an the cuddles and the rubbing.  Charlie just loves to rub up against Duke and he loves Duke to rub his nose into his belly. 

Duke gives me the signal to tell me that Charlie is finally ready for me to come and get him.  I got to Duke, pretending not to look straight at Charlie and easily pick him up and bring him in the house. 

After getting Charlie situated in the house I go get Duke and bring him in.  He gets the biggest hugs and kisses and treats for that day.  He knows he did a good job.

Now Charlie still tries to be sneaky and has the affinity of bugging Duke................and the rest of the cats......and sometimes me now.  He really extends his affection far too long for Duke, who usually tries to ignore him.  There is no ignoring Charlie though. Charlie loves to rub up against him when he comes inside to find out where Duke has been and what he has been into. He wil even walk between Duke's legs.  Charlie will follow Duke everywhere--almost to the point that they are attached to each other.  Only Duke will come to me and just give me these weird looks.  I think he is asking me to get Charlie away from him.

Last night was funny.  Duke got up on the bed and then a minute later Charlie got on the bed.  Charlie laid right beside Duke.  Well Duke must have not wanted to share his space and got down off the bed.  Right after he got off the bed, Charlie followed him.

Everywhere Duke goes, Charlie goes.  I think Charlie thinks he is a Dog.