About Cats Picture of the Week

Peek-A-Boo

Peek-A-Boo, Photo © Pamela Murphy

This is little Peek-A-Boo, mama of the beauty queen Pearl. Peek-A-Boo began life as a feral kitten who lived on a farm where they raised bobwhite quail. The farmer, a friend of my ex-husband's, was going to shoot the kitten because she was eating his birds. My ex, also a cat lover, and I already had a lot of cats, but he told his friend to bring the kitten to work. I worked across the street from him at a company that cleaned the sewers. The shop manager was also an animal lover, and he agreed that we needed a "shop cat." When they carried the cage with the kitten in to the shop, she was literally hanging upside-down from the top of the cage, screaming at the top of her lungs. We put her in the parts room and made up a nice bed, litter box, food and water bowls, etc. No one saw her for the first three months, but we knew she was there. She lived in the ceiling of the room but came down at night to eat and use the litter box. Soon she ventured out and walked around the steel beam that went around the top of the metal building, watching the mechanics work on the trucks.

Still nameless, the kitten was so filthy from being in the shop that she looked like a smoke-grey kitty! But she wouldn't let anyone get near her. Eventually, she started hanging over the loft area and watching the men eat their lunches, and they started throwing little scraps up to her. This is where she got her name. She seemed to like one of the guys, and he was able to get up on a ladder and pet her through the railings. I brought in a peacock feather and got up on the ladder and played with her, but still no one could get near her other than that way.

Then Peek-A-Boo went outside one warm February day, and turned up preggers. This seemed to calm her wild spirit down a bit. She was so dirty and matted by this time, I brought in a slicker brush and climbed up on the ladder. She LOVED the slicker brush! After a couple weeks, I had all the mats out of her and you could actually tell she was a calico cat.

When the kittens were born in a box of truck parts, we put them in a nice cozy box but she moved them every night to a different place in the shop. Fearing for their safety, I packed all of them up and took them home. Peekie was spayed, and the kittens were all adopted except for Peekie and Pearl, who still live with me. She weighs only five pounds, still loves her red slicker brush, and has never once shown a desire to go outside since she moved in with us. She knows she has the good life now!
© Pamela Murphy

Cats Pictures of the Week are selected from general photo submittals. (I do not accept photos submitted specifically for "Cat Picture of the Week.") It should be no secret by now that I'm a sucker for rescue stories, and Peek-A-Boo had a doozie of one. She's also a beautiful Calico girl and her photo will go in the July Calendar/Calico Cats Gallery as well as the Rescued Cats Gallery.

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