This is the true story about a cat simply known as...THE BABE. I know it is true because...I was there!
When I was growing up my Dad had a cousin who bred and raised champion Blue Point Siamese cats for show as well as for sale. My mother, being a great cat lover, often visited the cousin and would come home bubbling with descriptions of the various cats and what awards they had won or funny things they had done. Mother wanted a Siamese cat for herself but we simply could NOT afford to buy one. She was fascinated by the intelligence of the breed and especially by their China Blue eyes. When a rare female bobtail kitten was born in one litter, it was automatically disqualified as a show cat nor could it be sold because of the deformity (even though its grandsire had won the world championship at the World Fair in Mexico City... I believe the year was 1937). Mother was totally awed by the kitten she referred to as The Babe and noted that it seemed to be an unusually intelligent cat. It always recognized her when she came to visit and our cousin said that my mother was the only person the cat would associate with. In time, the cousin decided to give the bobtail cat to my mother. The year was 1942. It was an instant love affair between the two of them. The cat was genuinely a one person cat and my mother was totally devoted to her. The two seemed to have their own private language..and try as we might, we children had only minimal rapport with that cat. We could fill the pages of a small book if we told you all the stories we recall about our unusual and adventuresome cat. However, I do want to tell you this one because it is perhaps the most memorable of all. It took place in the far west Texas town of Monahans in the summer of 1944.
Simply known as "The Babe", our cat soon became well known by many folks in our little town and we received frequent offers to buy her from people not only in our town, but from people in neighboring towns as well. A Blue Point Siamese cat was a real rarity in our part of West Texas and cat lovers often sought her out just to get a glimpse of one...especially a rare bobtail one. One day in early summer as I was standing gazing out the front door and "The BABE" was calmly sitting on the front porch surveying her kingdom (for she was indeed the Queen of the Animals in our neighborhood, respected by every dog and cat that traversed the area for blocks around), a big shiny black car pulled up in front of the house. There were two men and two women in the car, strangers to me, and the large handsome automobile they drove suggested some degree of wealth might be anticipated...perhaps relatives from afar? I watched intently with all the curiosity and excitement a 9 year old could muster. A lady in an elegant suit and hat emerged from the back seat and called to the cat! "Here Kitty, Kitty...I have something for you!" Now the only thing that might attract our cat to a stranger would be fresh liver..she loved fresh liver...and being the one person cat that she was--she avoided strangers like the plague! The lady stooped down and laid something on the walkway and gently coaxed the cat to come...in a moment the cat quickly darted to it and began to eat. Suddenly the lady scooped up the cat and jumped back into the still running automobile with the squirming cat in her arms. Away they sped...down the block, turned the corner and disappeared. I stood almost speechless as I watched the kidnapping of our cat and as the reality of it soaked in, I screamed "MOTHER! They have taken our cat!" My mother rushed outside to see only the dust of the speeding car as it drifted across the road. I told Mother what I had witnessed and she was just as baffled as I was. Then she said firmly..."She will be back. The Babe can find her way home---they will not be able to hold her."
Days passed but there was no sign of our cat. A week, two weeks...three. Mother was beginning to give up hope. She wept as the end of each day approached and there was no cat to jump up in her waiting arms. Mother would sit in a chair on the front porch each evening and look down the street as though hoping to glimpse The Babe returning home. As the summer drifted by and Mother's hopes began to diminish, we often tried to imagine where The Babe could be...who were the people who took her? would they take good care of her? was The Babe happy? We could only imagine...
Late one August evening, just before sundown, our family was sitting out on the front porch relaxing in the cool evening breeze that tempers the stifling heat of a hot summer day in West Texas. As usual, Mother was staring down the street, dreaming of The Babe. Suddenly there was a gasp and Mother exclaimed "It's her! I know it's her!" We looked down the street and saw a small thin animal slowly walking our way. The animal appeared to be so tired it could hardly move one foot after the other. Mother jumped up and ran to meet it. As she got to the animal, The Babe dropped slowly at Mother's feet. Mother picked her up and rushed back to the house cradling The Babe in her arms like a newborn infant. The cat was bone thin and too tired to move a muscle. She looked as though she might have traveled a thousand miles without benefit of food or water. Her coat was rough and ragged and her feet were bleeding as though she had walked a long way over rocks and briars. With grateful hearts, we four kids breathed a sigh of relief and whispered a heartfelt WELCOME HOME, BABE! For the first time in over two months our Mother seemed relieved, completely happy and at ease. We were ready for her to resume her role as the Merry Maker in our family.
Our family doctor's wife was the local self-appointed humane society in our town and she herself owned 37 cats. Everyday she had dropped by to check and see if there was any news of The Babe. We telephoned to let them know the cat was home. The good doctor and his wife came at once and administered first aid to the cat. The Babe had been gone for two months and only my mother had held out any hope of ever seeing her again. Who took her? Where was she taken? How far had she traveled to find her way home? How long had she gone without food and water? We will never know, but the wonder of her journey has never ceased to amaze and fascinate us. The Babe survived the ordeal and in time she fully recovered to give us many more years of happiness and adventure.
Over the years The Babe produced a kitten only twice...a single black kitten each time, both of which were stillborn. In all the years we had her, she was known to be friendly with only one cat --a large black tomcat whose owner we never knew. All other cats she disdained and refused to let them on the premises. She was a fighter who stood on her hind legs and fought any cat or dog that dared to trespass on her territory. She was never known to lose a fight and put many a large dog on the run with one swat of her claws across his nose. The Babe became a legend in our town and among west Texas veterinarians. It has been more than a half century since her demise, yet often I still see her in my dreams and in my reveries...coming down that dusty road, tired, thin, hungry and thirsty, with ragged coat and bleeding feet...slowly dropping at the feet of my mother as though to say "At last I have reached Paradise!"
Today, somewhere in Paradise I know that two hearts beat as one...for The Babe and my mother have been reunited and are enjoying that wonderful land that knows no parting...somewhere beyond The Rainbow Bridge.
~June Hogue~
