I am a "Dog Person" that always said,
"I don't care to much for Cats".
Written on 02/17/17 by: Linda M. Werlein
I am a "Dog Person" that always said, "I don't care to much for Cats".
All that changed when I met a wild young female cat that, Amlicar Guzman, my Guatemalan employee, later named Gata. She was wild, mind you, we never fed her. She just appeared one day here on my ranch and made herself at home. She ate what she caught. A year later, she had kittens . . . only one male survived, so Amilcar, appropriately named him, Gato.
Gata, the mother, and Gato, the son, were inseparable from that time on. Gata was a huntress extraordinar! Gato grew into a "force to be reckoned with" . . . he took on all comers and defended the ranch from all types and sizes of interlopers. Don't get me wrong when, when I describe them as "tough as they were wild". Gata and Gato turned out to love people and would solicit friendship from all humans that visited the ranch. They both would walk right up to any dog and stand their ground, ready to take him on. Sometimes, "Fido" thought Dogs Rule! "Hell on wheels" would especially describe Gato if a dog got too pushy. Many a pooch . . . including several notable adversaries, such as, Diesel, the Rottweiler, Harley, the Dobermann & Titan, the German Shepherd were all vanquished by Gato at one time or another.
It wasn't till Gata was over 15 years old that we offered her food . . . she really didn't need it. Instead, Gata enjoyed the challenge of stealing food from the dogs, as did her son, Gato. One day after Gata passed by her 17th. birthday, she walked off into the woods to hunt as she often did . . . and never came back. We can only surmise that old age caught up with her out in those woods. I'm sure Gato missed her, as we all did, but, like troops, we all marched on.
Gato was born early in the year, 2000. Up till this year, he was the "big and buff" and he ruled the roost on the ranch. But, Old Father Time catches up with us all. Gato was no exception. He went downhill just after the we rang in 2017. On Feb. 16, 2017, Gato succumbed to cancer at the ripe old age of 17! Not bad for a cat that never spent a minute in doors, that caught all his food, and took on all comers!
God, I loved those CATS!
Linda
PS: These pictures, taken the day before he passed, don't do Gato justice. He had lost lots of weight and was but a shadow of the "force" he had been back in the day! Even the dogs miss him, as we all do!
