Cindy was the pet of our daughter, Crystal. She was 5 years old when her 1st cousin gave her the little kitten. Cindy was totally an outside cat, which seemed to give the neighbor children the idea that she belonged to the neighborhood. Almost every time Crystal wanted to play with her she would be missing. Crystal would cry, but then a day or two later Cindy would show up. We couldn't figure out where she was disappearing to. Finally one of Crystal's friends told her, "your cat looks just like the neighbors cat". The next time she was missing we went to visit the neighbor. Sure enough, there was Cindy. I very politely explained that Cindy was Crystal's cat, and while they were allowed to play with her and even have her over to visit they couldn't shut her up inside the house. They had to let her back outside where she could come home, eat, and play with her family. We never had any problems after that.

Cindy was a small gray striped alley cat. Always sweet and loving. I never remember her getting into any trouble. She always came when called, and never wandered very far from the house. She was a wonderful mouser. Many times we found offerings laid at our door, a pair of tiny ears, a foot, or, even a feather. Even tho we cringed, we told her what a wonderful job she did.

As she got older her teeth became chipped and she lost some of them. It was hard for her to eat dry cat food, but she didn't like the soft foods as well and they seemed to upset her stomach, so she lost weight. By this time our daughter was in college, she attended Ball State University, and she would take Cindy to visit at the house she shared with several sorority sisters. They all loved her. As Cindy got older, I explained to Crystal that sometimes animals seemed to sense when they were going to die and would leave home. The day came when we called Cindy and she didn't come. We never saw her again. She was 14.