On the way, driving home, while this giddy, somewhat apprehensive and new father tried to comfort his adopted children by talking to and telling them that we’d learn to function as a loving family. I doubt that Frankie and Johnnie were listening. A cat just by looking at another cat, and using their body language will speak volumes we humans have little knowledge understanding. Sure, we can tell by certain feline actions much about their respective moods. Yet, purposely, I think, they will never let us get into their minds. Anyway, who’d want to? The mystery only adds to their remarkable unshakable and unmistakable feline allure. They were not listening to me, while having a silent, air-clearing conversation all their own.

          Felines have a hierarchy, leaders and followers, who are subservient to those at the top; it’s an inherent quality in their birthright.  Practically, many, but not all animals, (we humans must be excepted), follow a leader, female or male, as the case may be. Frankie and Johnnie, it turned out, were no different, they were obeying their past history.

   Their silent conversation ending, it was understood Frankie was to be boss cat in their new home. Johnnie would play second fiddle.

The years pass by too fast

            What follows to this present day would go down as a necessary obligation of my training by these animals; infused with much hurt and worry over Frankie’s health, much expense. I quickly learned you never own a cat, you are their keeper, they will own you in ways you’d never imagine. Amid the lifting of my loneliness and the complete trust, love and faith these animals engendered, no matter how bad or wrong things went on any given day, opening the door and being greeted by Frankie and Johnnie, I was as whole again as a human could be.

 I confess to thinking Evelyn would have been happy for me in understanding the comforting joy of having these felines as my “children.” Their adoption would lead me on a path I would and could not ever have envisioned. My story writing and pictures of them, would lead me to new friendships and correspondence in the United States and many foreign countries with other feline animal lovers who in this instance were complete strangers but who loved the feline, the domestic cat, just as I did. 

 Much more to follow: It was Ernest Hemingway who said, “Write what you know about.” In subsequent pages many chapters will be written reflecting the love, happy times and the trials and tribulations of our togetherness. You will learn how my beautiful Frankie the Calico became (I think) the only toothless Calico in the world. Even with no teeth, in my ultra biased opinion, I still think she’s the world’s most beautiful and loving Calico. So far, I’ve never seen a better-marked Calico. She’s a product of a Tortoiseshell and some other cat that had the white gene.

To read the next chapter in Dan's book, please click here