When I was a child in Allentown, PA, my dad brought me a cat. I named him Puff. It was a truck stop cat- huge, gray, and seemed to like having a home and people! I’d never seen anything so beautiful! His fur was dark, smoky gray and it was long! I found him rather luxurious since I’d never seen a long-haired cat up close. In the south, you’d rarely see a long hair just roaming around lol.

He was my favorite thing ever! Even after he bit off half of my gerbil’s tail. I still remember it, because it was gutwrenching as half of it twitched on the floor a bit. I caught the poor thing and put it back in the cage. Fortunately,  I had a smart Mom and she swung into action, Miss Nurse and all!

After a year or so, one day, Puff got out and ran like a lightning bolt down the sidewalk and up the street like he was on fire! I didn’t blame him, because I had always felt bad taking him from the outdoors. I was sad, but he was far too fast to chase. I thought I saw him when I was trick-or-treating, which ruined the whole thing, Casper mask and all.

I went home and was telling my mom and such, which as a mom now I can only was a tough moment for her. She was and is so good at helping with sadness. We were on our patio of a second floor apartment watching Halloween unfolding. I remember my lost feeling so well.

After a bit, at the very top of the hill that was our street, we saw a flash of gray heading our way and as I was stutter-yelling my mom said ‘go open the doors’! I flew to our door, down the stairs, opened the second door and in flew that gray lightning bolt, right up the second flight and straight into our house! He never slowed down!

It was him I’d seen!! And he recognized me, found a way out of that place (most likely as trick-or-treaters required door-openings!) and came home!

A few years later we were moving and my dad said he was ‘taking him to a friend’s farm’. I wasn’t stupid. I will never forget the love I felt for that cat as I watched him jump on my dad’s head as he drove away down the street with my Puff, the badass, poorly named cat.

I never believed my dad until after we’d moved back to NC and one day he brought him back….