this luna's loca: Hoodie

Thanks to his gentle and independent nature, Hoodie enjoys Favored Cat Status about 90 percent of the time around here.

He's lovable, he minds well, and he comes when he's called ... on his own terms, of course.

I found Hoodie and a sibling on Craig's List before I moved from the city. I was grieving Puck, our old Maine Coon, and here were two precious little furballs! After I got them home however, I discovered that they were much younger than their owner had said. When I tried to contact him, he'd inconveniently disappeared, cold cash in hand.

I was outraged. These poor little critters were malnourished and still needed their mother. They had to be bottle-fed every few hours, bathed at least twice daily, and kept warm and safe. Unfortunately, one of the kittens made it only a few days. I was heartbroken. The surviving kitten held his own and thrived, developing along the way an endearing personality and a Houdini-like trait of getting into–and out of–seemingly impossible situations. We named him Houdini, which was quickly shortened to Hoodie.

I guess I should explain that we're not very good at sexing our cats. When Hoodie was about 7 months old we took him to Dr. Sam, our semi-local vet, to have him neutered. You can only imagine my surprise the following day when I picked him up to find that he'd been spayed. But since he'd always been one to us, we decided it would be easier to continue to refer to him as a he. Poor baby probably has emotional damage. In our defense, he's always enjoyed his privacy.

In this herd of cats, he's our climber. When he's outside, he's often lying around on top of one of our vehicles, in a tree, on the roof of the house, or on top of the table or sitting in one of the chairs. But he does have a hunting streak on occasion and trots up with a mouse or lizard to show off and torment the other cats.

His first year here he tried his darndest to catch one of the quail that come up in the mornings to eat the feed I throw out for them. Quail are smart. They're not easy to catch. None of our cats has ever caught one, although they've all been tempted. Hoodie is the only one who's realized the futility of it all and let the quail be. He's almost as smart as a quail now.

He's also the only one of our cats who can squeeze himself down almost flat on the floor to get under furniture when he wants to be alone. It drives his best bud Niko crazy. (But then again, just about everything Hoodie does drives Niko crazy.)

We also like to watch his big fluffy tail, which seems to have a life of its own, like an elegant snake: