This is how I got my screen name:
I take the train to and from work every day. One particularly dark and stormy night, I was hurrying to the train in a downpour and was halted by the sound of a pitiful meow/yowl. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m sure youâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve all heard THAT sound. I looked around for the source and found him under a car. He was huddled under there looking so sad, and though heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]d come up to sniff my fingers, I couldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t get more than that. Feeling anxious, I ran for the train (which a I almost missed). Next morning, I came armed with kitten chow . . . but he wasnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t there. Ack! Was he OK? That evening, though, I saw him again in an abandoned luggage cart. I started bringing him food morning and night, gently coaxing him to trust me. I got to the point where heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]d let me gently touch the guard hairs of his coat, but and more firm and heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]d bolt.
Then came New Yearâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s weekend, a three-day holiday weekend. I got off an hour early Thurs, sure that I could get him if I had more time with him. I stood in the rain for an hour and a half, coaxing him. Just when I truly almost had him in a position where I could get his scruff and put him in the carrier . . . a train went by and he scurried off in alarm. To add insult to injury . . . . it was MY TRAIN. “Honey, can you pick me up . . . .?â€
I worried about him all day Friday, and finally decided I couldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t leave him down there without food for three days, so I went down Sat morning. Lo and behold, a day without food made him completely incautious! I set the food down, he ran up to it without pause, I picked him up and put him (protesting) into the cat carrier! It was over in under one minute! Sheesh, after all that!!!
After a month of socializing, he now cuddles with us at night and “purrs like a motorboatâ€, as my husband puts it. I think the poor boy got dumped there, because he just showed up downtown, where there arenâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t any houses to speak of, heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]d obviously had SOME positive human contact before, and he was in fairly good shape. The last third of his tail was dead tissue (trauma, congenital . . . the vet canâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t be sure) and fell off (I expected it would, but it happened at the vetâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s while getting neutered . . . talk about a fortuitous occurrence!), but otherwise in great shape.
Oh yes. The name! I practice Isshinryu karate. An obi is a belt used to tie a kimono or a gi (karate uniform). Since our boy is black, and my husband and I are working on our black belts, we essentially decided to name our kitten black belt. Go Obi!! No more stormy, miserable nights for you!! Thanks to those of you who finished this novel! As reward, check out the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (type into google). He's the guy who wrote the line "It was a dark and stormy night". It's a fiction contest for BAD FIRST LINES TO NOVELS, and it's a scream.
I take the train to and from work every day. One particularly dark and stormy night, I was hurrying to the train in a downpour and was halted by the sound of a pitiful meow/yowl. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m sure youâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve all heard THAT sound. I looked around for the source and found him under a car. He was huddled under there looking so sad, and though heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]d come up to sniff my fingers, I couldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t get more than that. Feeling anxious, I ran for the train (which a I almost missed). Next morning, I came armed with kitten chow . . . but he wasnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t there. Ack! Was he OK? That evening, though, I saw him again in an abandoned luggage cart. I started bringing him food morning and night, gently coaxing him to trust me. I got to the point where heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]d let me gently touch the guard hairs of his coat, but and more firm and heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]d bolt.
Then came New Yearâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s weekend, a three-day holiday weekend. I got off an hour early Thurs, sure that I could get him if I had more time with him. I stood in the rain for an hour and a half, coaxing him. Just when I truly almost had him in a position where I could get his scruff and put him in the carrier . . . a train went by and he scurried off in alarm. To add insult to injury . . . . it was MY TRAIN. “Honey, can you pick me up . . . .?â€
I worried about him all day Friday, and finally decided I couldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t leave him down there without food for three days, so I went down Sat morning. Lo and behold, a day without food made him completely incautious! I set the food down, he ran up to it without pause, I picked him up and put him (protesting) into the cat carrier! It was over in under one minute! Sheesh, after all that!!!
After a month of socializing, he now cuddles with us at night and “purrs like a motorboatâ€, as my husband puts it. I think the poor boy got dumped there, because he just showed up downtown, where there arenâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t any houses to speak of, heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]d obviously had SOME positive human contact before, and he was in fairly good shape. The last third of his tail was dead tissue (trauma, congenital . . . the vet canâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t be sure) and fell off (I expected it would, but it happened at the vetâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s while getting neutered . . . talk about a fortuitous occurrence!), but otherwise in great shape.
Oh yes. The name! I practice Isshinryu karate. An obi is a belt used to tie a kimono or a gi (karate uniform). Since our boy is black, and my husband and I are working on our black belts, we essentially decided to name our kitten black belt. Go Obi!! No more stormy, miserable nights for you!! Thanks to those of you who finished this novel! As reward, check out the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (type into google). He's the guy who wrote the line "It was a dark and stormy night". It's a fiction contest for BAD FIRST LINES TO NOVELS, and it's a scream.
