THE STORY OF MR AND MRS CAT.

I have found it a delight as of late to go wandering around the blogging world. There are many beautiful posts to discover with amazing photography, sympathetic hearts, and lovely souls. Several have specific subjects for differing days of the week, one of which is Furry Friday. The idea appears to be to share stories and photos of one's animal friends.
This is not an attempt to copy or butt in there uninvited, but I was looking through my photos and found this one of our cats, taken many years ago. So, I thought I would tell their story.

Once upon a time, long ago, we had a cat named Silver. That is his picture above. You can tell which one he is...the one with the beautiful silverish colored fur. He was a nice cat, hired to keep mice out of the house, and prone to wandering about from time to time. We lived in a duplex at the time and one day, for whatever reason, I had dropped a blanket at the front door on my way into the house. Later that night, a thunderstorm came up and caused the lights to go off for awhile. It was raining and blowing outside and dark. It was during this silent/noisy time that we percieved tiny mewing sounds coming from the front door. We looked out to let Silver come in out of the rain, but he wasn't there. We closed the door, but soon could hear the same tiny sounds again. When we looked out, Silver was there and he was nosing into the blanket I had left out. Down in the blanket, the sounds were coming from another cat. As we looked closer, we discovered tiny shapes, moving shakily around and making tiny noises. We didn't know this cat, but she was clearly there with some very young kittens. We pulled them into the house by grabbing the blanket and sliding it out of the rain. Silver watched like a nervous father.
I'd always been told that the old tom cats were a danger to new kittens. We watched Silver as he cautiously crept closer and sniffed at the babies. Mama Cat and Silver exchanged courtesies nose to nose. Silver made no threats and Mama made no defense motions.
We didn't know for sure if the kittens were born on our porch or not. It seemed a little more likely that our Silver brought his family out of the storm to shelter. It is a mystery where they had come from, and just when this feline romance had begun. We named the two adults Mr. and Mrs. Cat....Mrs. Cat's name was Crystal. They were adoreable little partners from then on. They would love and kiss and purr. Silver often stood gaurd at our open door, watching the outdoors for danger. A few times he bolted out into the yard, hissing and threatening. There were very young puppies who lived in the duplex next door and Silver didn't want them around. We had to watch out for the puppies so they wouldn't be hurt. Mr. and Mrs. Cat spent their time together, relaxing and cuddling in the evenings. He was very protective of her. When we moved from that house we took them all with us. The kittens and Mrs. Cat went on to find other homes. Silver also didn't care for his new home and left. But one day, almost a year later to the day of him leaving, I looked up to see Silver hurrying across the street, calling to us as he ran. He came into the house, had a bit to eat, and was loved and petted with all our adoration. He stayed and actually talked for about an hour. We had such respect for him. Then he said his goodbyes and was off. He crossed over the street, back the way he'd come and we didn't ever see him again. I've kept the picture of Mr. and Mrs. Cat in my files and their story in my heart.