Odie came to us quite unexpectedly. We had a cat named Abby. A cute little black and white cat that pretty much controlled the house. She loved all the attention and really didn’t want to share her humans. Well, her life changed one day. As we were sitting in the living room we heard this noise by the front door. My husband Phil, opened the door and here was this little orange and white tabby clinging to the screen door. He was meowing as much as possible to get our attention. We figured he must of followed Abby home and felt it was a place to check out! “She looked happy maybe these humans would want to take care of me!” At least that is what we think he was saying. Anyway we took him in and decided to give him a bath since he was covered with dirt and what ever else.
So in the tub he went. We filled the bottom of the tub with just a little water that covered his paws and used a flexible shower hose to wash him with. We had found a shampoo for cats at the local pet store and preceded to give him a bath. During the first shower we were aghast at how black the water was from all the fleas and dirt on him! That was when we decided to shower him twice. I had heard cats did not like water but Odie, my husband officially named him, loved the water. He was not resisting to all the water and shampoo. He probably was relieved all those fleas were being washed away! After drying him off as much as possible, we discovered a very cute, less than a year old white and orange tabby that was very happy to be clean again. After searching the neighborhood for his real home and not having any success, we decided to add him to our family. Of course we did not discuss this addition with Abby. I still remember her sitting on the edge of the couch watching this little orange tabby with the bouncing tail walk by and her having this mean look like, “What is HE doing here?”