Cats in Houses and Cars

In Brazil, for the most part, it would seem that pets are not as loved and cherished as they are in the United States.  At least that has been my experience.  Before Uncle Byron and I left for the mission field, we had a cat named Abby.  I think you all may have met our little cat after Granddaddy Beckner graciously allowed her to live in his home.  She was a nice little cat and we loved her a lot.

Cats and dogs in our little town of Sobradinho often seem to have no owner at all.  They run from here to there looking scraggly and underfed.  Last night we went to an outdoor grilled-meat snack-shop sort of place here in our town.  There was a gang of about ten dogs anxiously waiting for customers to drop a piece of meat or throw them a tidbit.  When they were bored, they chased people on bicycles up and down the road, fought among themselves and even chased a few pedestrians.  And hardly anyone even seemed to care.  Some of these "stray" dogs even had collars and probably go home at night to someone's house.

And then there are cats... cats can be a nuisance.  They run on the top of roofs knocking down the red clay tiles.  They always seem to get cornered in our back yard in the middle of the night with Tiny and Girl howling for hours on end.  They get into trash waiting to be picked up on the side of the road.  They are everywhere and seem to have no owners.

Several times at our house in Fortaleza, crazy cats got inside the house in the middle of the night.  Our house had a special "garden" area where there was an opening in the ceiling and roof up to the sky.  Many old houses in Brazil have a little part of the living room like this where houseowners can have real plants right inside their house.  Rain and sunlight can come right in making the house seem more airy and happy.

Cats soon found that this little "hole" was a great place to jump in and have a look around. On one particular night, two cats sort of fell into the area together while having a fight on the roof.  There was squalling and scratching and fur-flying while these two cats had it out and we wondered how to get them out before they broke any thing.

Thankfully with brooms in hand and the doors to the outside open, we got rid of the crazy cats.  But the same problem happened a few other times.  It was about that time that someone offered us a puppy.  And then after we got Blackie, we never had any more cat problems.

Another time after we moved to Bahia, I had seen a little stray cat near our car one afternoon.  That next day I went to pick up some boys and girls for Sunday School. When I arrived at the first house to pick someone up,  I stepped out of the car to open the door for the boys and girls to get in.  All of a sudden that same little cat seemed to jump right out of the car?  Apparently it had been asleep on the inside of the big back bumper and had ridden from our house to the other.  It was okay but a little in shock from its scary ride.  I didn't know what to do with it.  There was a box in the car so the kids and I put it in the box and went on to Sunday School.  I figured we should take it back to our street in case it belonged to someone there.  After Sunday School one of the boys and girls decided most likely belonged to no one and wanted to take it home.  I figured they were probably right and so...
 
p.s.  Look back later for a photo of old Abby cat!