It was a sad day when Kelo went away

My new fur baby

I moved to a different house on October 4, 2021, and immediately noticed that it was a cat neighborhood. I saw a black cat, an orange Tabby, and a huge gray, white, and black cat who looked like he had been inside a dryer and my grandchildren named him Fluffy. There was also a light gray kitty and my oldest son said he saw a gold cat roaming the neighborhood. The one who captured my heart was a big gray and white male cat with gold eyes who would be in front of the house of my neighbor two doors down.

One Saturday afternoon when my grandchildren were visiting we walked to the park that is a few blocks away. Upon returning home as we passed the neighbor's house this huge gray and white cat came out to the sidewalk to greet us. He followed us to the house and began rubbing on my granddaughter's legs. The next day when the grandchildren were playing in the front yard my granddaughter said "Here kitty" and the cat came running.

He began hanging out at our house and would come to meet me when I drove up. Several times when I opened the car door he jumped into my lap. My oldest son said that whenever he sat on the porch the cat would jump in his lap. I began feeding the male kitty from the food we had for our indoor cat Boots and he really appreciated it. He would meow and jump so high you would think he was starving. One look at him, however, let you know he wasn't.

Kelo is his name

The grandchildren said they heard the neighbor's teenage daughter calling the cat Kelo and I saw the girl holding him in her arms a few times. I went to the neighbor and asked if this were their cat because he was hanging out at my house a lot. She said he was a "hood cat" who roamed the neighborhood and ate where he could.

Kelo was not your typical stray cat because several times he would run inside our house and try to play with Boots. We discouraged this as we did not know what shots or diseases Kelo had. He was too friendly to be a feral cat and too large to be a starving stray. We knew that at some point he must have been someone's house pet and wished we knew his back story.

Our cat gray Tabby Boots had two cat beds so we placed the one he rarely used on the front porch for Kelo. My son later purchased a cozy cat house for when the weather got cold. Kelo immediately began sleeping in the soft comfortable cat house and crying at the front door for food each day. I was thankful for the roof over the front porch that would protect him from the elements and the neighbor's home had the same.

A free spirit

My youngest son and I talked about getting Kelo to a vet, getting his shots, and making him our own since the neighbor did not officially claim him. We even decided he could stay in the basement when the cold weather and snow came.

Kelo continued to roam the neighborhood and sometimes we might not see him for a few days but he always returned. He would look both ways before crossing the street and I prayed he would not get hit by a car or be chased by dogs. We never knew where he went or what he was doing but he kept up his routine. When he came back he would at times remain on our front porch all night.

The holidays bring change

On Christmas Eve the grandchildren were playing in the yard and later informed me that the neighbors had come home with a cat house for Kelo and that the teenage girl had put a white collar around his neck. I assumed they had decided to adopt him and at any rate, he had been going to their home longer than ours.

On Christmas Day Kelo came to get some food but I did not see the collar around his neck. I still had in my mind to take him to the vet but a nagging thought kept coming to me. My grandma once said that as soon as she had taken her terrier dog, Queenie, to the vet and spent a lot of money on her that Queenie had disappeared never to be seen again. I wondered if this were a premonition that Kelo was going to disappear but I put the thought out of my mind.

A satisfied kitty

Kelo continued to sleep in his bed most nights and eat at our house. He rubbed against us and enjoyed being petted and I knew that someone had loved and cared for him because the other cats I mentioned earlier all ran when you got near them. They were not friendly at all but would hang around and try to take Kelo's food but he fought back LOL.

During the warm days between October and December Kelo would roll back and forth in the grass when the sun was shining. One day he was on the front porch of the neighbor to my right just basking in the sunlight and rolling back and forth. He seemed happy and his gold eyes would dance as he looked at you.

Change is coming

On New Year's Eve, I went to the store to purchase more food for Kelo and Boots and my grandmother's saga with Queenie came to mind again and I felt a bit sad but brushed it off. On Sunday morning January 2, three months after meeting him Kelo greeted me and eagerly ate his breakfast. I remember petting him as I went back into the house and this was the last time I saw him. I waited for Kelo to show up in a few days as was his pattern and this time he did not. I checked with the neighbors and they were also wondering where the cat might be?

I have scoured the neighborhood and called for him but there is no sign of Kelo. The neighbor's father said he had done the same. I noticed that once the temperature dropped and we began having ice and snow, that not one of the neighborhood cats were hanging around. I wondered if they had been picked up by animal control because of the weather and checked with the city pound and local SPCA.

Neither of them had Kelo and the City officials said because of COVID they are not picking up any stray cats. The temperatures dropped on January 3rd and have been at near-freezing ever since and the ground has been covered with ice ad snow for more than a week. I noticed that neither Fluffy nor the other cats were roaming and wondered if they had a winter hibernation location?

A broken heart

A few days ago I saw an orange and white cat about a block away and yesterday a small gray cat with a white collar ran through my yard and across the street but no sign of Kelo. My heart is broken because I fell in love with this kitty as did my grandkids. He was so friendly, loving and appreciative. He would sit in the chairs on the front porch and the mailman would greet him when he delivered the mail.

I miss Kelo coming to the car to greet me and the way he begged for food as if he were starving. It's been three weeks since I have seen him but both I, myself, and my neighbor continue to keep the kitty houses on our porches just in case. I noticed a few times that Kelo's sides looked a bit lumpy at times and wondered if he were ill. One day he lay in his kitty house for several hours and my grandson was afraid he was dead because he did not seem to be breathing.

An unsolved mystery

I put on a plastic glove and rubbed his head and eventually he looked up at me but closed his eyes. About thirty minutes later he was up and running as good as new. Did Kelo simply go somewhere to die or did something bad happen to him? Did he have a previous owner who had been looking for him and found him? If he could get back to the neighborhood where he was loved and fed at two homes why would he stay away?

I miss him terribly and continue to hope that one day he will return or we will know why he is no longer with us. He obviously had somewhere else that he was staying because of the way he loved to eat, why would he disappear for several days at a time. The had food and water and three choices of warm beds he could sleep in so why did he continue to roam? The only thing I know for certain is that it was a sad day when Kelo went away and I still mourn for him.