When I was taking care of my Mom while she was going through several operations in 1999, I was staying at her house in Riverside and driving to my studio at Palapas in Palm Springs every day. The hour drive was good for thinking and planning, however sometimes at night it got a little scarey. I hadn't lived in Riverside for many years and it was a big city to me by then. When she went in for one of the surgeries, I was told she would have to be in a nursing home for a month. This frightened me because I was worried about her and had never been in her house alone before. The night before the surgery, I was sitting on the patio having a cig, and this little tiny black kitty appeared and jumped up on the table and started rubbing on me and purring. I thought it was late for a little guy like that to be out, so I went around the neighborhood to find out if he was lost. One of the neighbors said a cat had had kittens in a shed next door. So he was feral but had been around people before. I went to the store and got supplies and he moved in. I always thought it was so cute that he would be playing outside, and want in to use the kitty box and then run back outside again. We slept together and played together. I always had someone to come home to during that month, and when Mom returned she fell in love with him too. Which is remarkable because she has never had a pet of her own. When she was all put back together again it was time for us to move on. I had separated from my husband by then, and we found this place. I had also adopted 2 other black cats by then. When they first got introduced, Kitty Boy Floyd had already become quite large and they were still kittens so they were afraid of him. He crouched down low on the floor to make himself smaller so they wouldn't be afraid of him. Eventually Gizmo and Kitty Boy Floyd became buds, but Mut (a female) never really took to him. If she was close by, Kitty Boy would walk very slowly looking straight ahead and not at her. I always thought this was funny because he was twice as big a she was.
If people came over to visit, he would be the first to greet them. He like certain dogs but not all dogs. When one of my rescued cats had kittens, he acted like they were his and cared for them and groomed them and played with them. Evidently he was attractive to other lady cats because he always has a little personal entourage of Lotus and Isis with him. When I came home from petsmart, he would immediatley fish into the bag and grab the little white fur toy mice that I bought for him, he knew they were his. He was a sucker for catnip. He had a little bat toy that I could refill and he loved it. He was always friendly, a pest if you were drinking milk or eating ice cream, and I loved him dearly. We had been through a lot together and I will miss him every day.
He passed away today due to illness. He is now in my heavenly home waiting for me. I love you Bubula and always will.
