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Thea Marx

There are many laughs and great tear jerking posts here so before you go, read on!

When I am not writing about my life, I am immersed in Western Design... check that out too!

Puddin' The Unforgettable Feline

My dad was a vo-ag teacher and I was his tag-a-long. He was the guy who I trotted behind trying to keep up with as he walked, shovel on his shoulder, through the alfalfa field to irrigate. He was also the guy that always gave in when I came home with a stray, which was often. Once, he found me at my grandmother’s with a bum lamb in the back yard, bleating its little heart out. The lamb had to ride 150 miles home in a cardboard box on the floor board of our 1963 Chevy Impala. That bum would become Rosie, my ladies lead line ewe at the county fair and mother of many lambs after.

On one excursion, my dad was getting eggs from a local chicken farm for the poultry judging team to candle. My usual inquisitive self, I wandered about the farm in and out of the hen houses and peeking into holes. One such dark place elicited a tiny “Mew”. Upon further inspection, a tiny Siamese kitten peaked out, mewing with both expectation and desperation. Scooping him up, I realized he was skin and bones. Every one of his little ribs showed, his head dwarfed his body. There was no mother to be found. Cradling him to my chest, I ran to find Dad. In the farm’s office, I found him chatting with Mrs. Applehance. He took one look at me and started shaking his head. Mrs. Applehance never batted an eye. As I recall, she said, “Go ahead honey, you can take him home. We don’t like cats around here.” I think it was at that moment that Dad knew he was defeated. All I had to say was, “Please Dad.”

At home, I put him into what we called, “the little bathroom.” It was where we stored all the vet supplies and calf bottles and just conveniently where the litter box was. He cried and cried until I thought my heart would break. He was so little and hungry that when I fed him fresh milk in a saucer, his nose would fall into it from the weight of his head like a dodo bird and he would come up snorting and sneezing milk. I am sure he wasn’t getting much.

When my mom came home from work, it was the classic pose with hands on her hips and “What are we going to do with another cat?” She had a soft heart and it didn’t take her long to have pity on the tiny soul. Before long he quit crying with hunger and slept on my pillow. For 8 years that was his place. He was not your usually svelte stately Siamese. His body short and stubby, his legs bow legged in front, cow hocked in back. We wondered if his brain had been oxygen deprived. Frequently, he would pull things like walking off the front porch into thin air to fall unceremoniously into the flower pots below. He had his idiosyncrasies. He loved water. We would find him curled in the bathroom sink letting the leaky faucet drip, drip, drip on him. He would sit on the edge of the tub feeling the spray from the shower on his face like soft rain and he was frequently my companion in the field as I set water. One big, fat Siamese cat was my constant companion and side kick. He would even ride with me. I would set him on the horse and swing on and off we would go. Cat. Girl. Horse.

I protected him fiercely. But one night, I went to the house early to do homework while my parents finished chores. A bull buyer drove in. Puddin’ must have snuck out while I was giving the buyer directions to the barn. I didn’t give it a second thought. Later when I called him in for the night, I saw, in the glow of the yard light an unmoving form in the drive way. I cried for days and still feel the tears well with the memory.

For years later, I looked for a kitty to replace my Puddin’. When I applied to Cornell University my essay was not about politics or global warming, but rather a kitty named Puddin’. It must have worked. I got in.

Photo: Meet my two kitties that have been a special part of my life for the last 16 years: Hobbs and Coal.


Animals are just one of my passions in life. Another one is western design. Please come to ContemporaryWesternDesign.com and enjoy western furniture, western art, western fashion and western accessories