The Sweet Potato Saga

Sweet Potato is our cat...kind of...maybe...I don't really know. We thought he was our cat. We took him in and nursed him back to health. We fattened him up, and bought him a food dish and a bed. We love him and spoil him. He loves us. I know that for a fact.

The problem with Sweet P is that he likes to roam around. He is an outdoor cat and he will leave and stay gone for days. Sometimes, I wonder if he really belongs to someone else and we just think he is our cat.

Most of the time he comes back healthy and well-nourished. Sometimes, he comes back wounded. Recently, he showed up at the door with a fight abscess on his paw. It was bitter cold and snowing. We took him in and let him stay for three days and nights in the house. I bought a litter box and another bed for inside. He spent most of the time in our laps or locked in the bathroom while we ate and slept. On the fourth morning, he went to the front door and scratched to be let out. He was gone again for days until dear husband heard him scratching on the back door Monday. He let him in and fed him and checked his paw. It was healing nicely and he was bearing weight on it.

I hadn't seen him again until 2 o'clock this morning. I heard him scratching at the front door. I opened the door and in he walked. He tried several times to meow. He has never been able to meow quite properly. It comes out more like a bird squawking. It really just makes him that much more adorable. He walked through the living room, through the kitchen, into the mud room and placed his paw on his bag of Iams cat food. I fed and watered him, and yep, you guessed it, he is gone this morning. I am starting to feel like a Holiday Inn for cats.