Once upon a time, a small animal was born on the island of St. Croix. He was furry and orange and white. The placement of the colors on his face made Auntie Maggie exclaim, “Milo will always look like a kitten!”

Milo on Yoda’s bed on the “Dog Porch”

Milo came with his name. At one point in my life I said, “We need an orange and white cat.” Suddenly, we had two! Milo and Al (Al came with his name, too).

That was about ten years ago. Auntie Maggie was right! Milo still looks like a kitten. But the fact remains, he’s a dog in a kitten suit. Milo hasn’t groomed himself in a while. He sort of has “dreadlocks”. People might be tempted to call him “Rasta Cat” or something to that effect. But Milo has a method to his madness. The dogs accept him as one of them.

If any other cat would attempt to walk through the “dog yard” (yes, our yard is separated by fences, porches and gates into “dog areas” and “cat areas”) the cat would be ripped to shreds by our rottweiler/pitbull/chow mixes. It has happened too many times. At one point 15 cats lived here. Today, we have four.

Or maybe three and Milo. Milo saunters through the dog yards on both sides of the house with ease.

Milo on Ajax or Emmy’s bed

The first time I saw him lying down (I thought I might have a coronary!) in the dog yard (!), I screamed and ran after him to get him over the fence before the dogs saw him. He nonchalantly jumped over the fence to appease me. That was well over a year ago.

To this day, Milo comes and goes wherever he pleases in each yard and even in the house. I stopped letting cats into the house over 3 years ago when I got tired of the neutered males spraying all over everything.

So, he’s not completely a cat, but not quite a dog either. He’s just Milo.

Tags: St. Croix

This entry was posted on Monday, January 21st, 2008 at 6:59 pm and is filed under St. Croix, Terry Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.