Sweet Vel

This isn't the greatest picture of Velvet but it will have to do for today. I call Velvet "Sweet Vel" because he really does have the nicest personality. Vel must be about 7 years old. Seven years or so ago, I noticed him in the forest one morning.. Someone had dumped him with an open can of tunafish. This always sends me into a panic. Another animal! I kept looking into the forest but resolved that I wasn't going to go searching for a new pet but when I went out into the yard, there he was on the back doorstep sleeping on a pair of garden shoes. Complete breakdown on my part! I grabbed the car keys in hysteria took off to the next city. I called Tetsu and was sobbing so hard he came from work and talked to me awhile. We can't take in another animal! If I take in this one, I'll have to take in the next one too. (We had just adopted another stray, Zorro, a couple months previously.) We agreed that I should stay away from the house until evening and if the cat was still there then we would take it in. You know the rest of the story. He was still there and he became our Sweet Vel. He has the softest fur (thus the name.) He is the most lovable of all our cats and always wants to be with one of us. He is the only cat we've ever had that will come when you call his name and he especially likes Tetsu.

Last summer I went away with some friends overnight and left Tetsu in charge of the animals but when I came back Mrs. Yano greeted me with "Did your cat come back?" What!!!?? I called Tetsu and he said that when he woke up that morning Velvet was gone. This is a cat who never goes outside. (All our cats are indoor cats.) We determined that he must have fallen off the veranda in the middle of the night and though we looked and looked and Tetsu kept apologizing, no Vel. The next two days were filled with typhoons and terrible rain and even though I went door to door to the neighbors no one had seen Vel. I put signs up, I spent a couple hours everyday roaming the forest and calling. Kaoru-san and friends were coming over to offer sympathy. But on the fifth day... Vel came out of the forest and never was the worse from his five days of living in the wild! I don't know how many times I've thanked God for bringing Vel back to us!