The Dude's Tale

Ollie entered my life on Saturday, December 30^th, 2000, two days after my first wife, Rita, had lost her battle with breast cancer.

My daughter and two of Rita's friends were sitting in our family room, where I overheard them discussing a conversation one of them had had with Rita shortly before her death. The topic was how would I, her husband of twenty-five years, would be able to adjust to life without my beloved wife. Apparently, Rita had mentioned that I would probably get a cat, just so I wouldn't have to come home each night to an empty house.

Upon hearing this story, my daughter and I felt obliged to satisfy Rita's final wish for me, and so we set off to find my new household companion. We first tried the local SPCA, but upon finding they were closed for the New Year holiday we moved on to the local Humane Society.

As we were ushered into their cat room, home to almost fifty cats of various shapes, colors, and sizes, a big orange guy walked over to my daughter and rubbed up against her legs. When she picked him up, he latched himself onto her sweater. The shelter staffers were surprised; this was very out of character for this particular animal. When he let go of my daughter's sweater and attached himself to me, they were shocked. This just wasn't what they had come to expect from Ollie, who had come to them as "Oliver" but whose name had been changed because they already had a cat by that name in the shelter.

They tried to warn me. This cat was trouble. He sprayed; he was messy; he didn't like dogs; he was aloof, even for a cat. I took him home anyway.

Following Jewish custom, friends and family came to our home to observe Shiva the first days after Rita's burial. As they offered condolences and participated in the evening service, Ollie joined in and made the rounds of the living room, greeting everyone. After awhile I lost track of him. Where could he have gone? Had he gone into the basement? Upstairs? Somehow gotten out of the house? After a brief search, I discovered a group of my female co-workers sitting at the top of the stairs, surrounding one very proud, purring, orange cat who was regally accepting all their stroking and petting. The *Dude* had arrived.

Copyright © 2005 William Metzker