Heat Cat 5 – Anything but Ordinary…
Although this blog is barely a month old, the one thing I have quickly learned is to be flexible. I try to be organized and schedule my posts ahead of time in a somewhat logical manner. As I mentioned, I want to get us back on track and start talking about how the book, “The Chronicles of Zee & Zoey – a Journey of the Extraordinarily Ordinary”was created. But, because a blog by nature is interactive, I am constantly being presented with amazing comments and feedback from my readers, many of them complete strangers that have reached out to me with such wonderful stories that need to be shared, causing me the need to re-adjust my game plan!
One such story that I just felt I had to share right now came as a result of my “Other People’s Cat” album on my photos page. I had reached out to all of you and asked you to send me pictures of your cats so I could post them on the album. Well, I received a very brief email with nothing more than a facebook link in it from a stranger and the subject “feline war hero.” I hesitantly opened it to find a profile for a cat named “Heat Cat 5” and did not really put two and two together like I should have. The cat was a tough, scrappy looking thing and was new to facebook. Well, the album doesn’t state the cat has to be ultra fluffy and cute – all cats are beautiful to me – so I emailed the person back and said, “send me a jpeg and the breed of the cat and I’d be happy to post a picture.”
A few minutes later, I got a reply to just grab one of the pictures from facebook, that the breed was unknown, and that “one of the guys is trying to get him home.” Okay, finally my cup of coffee kicked in and I realized I had an intriguing story. I looked at Heat Cat’s profile and it said he was affiliated with the US Army and one of his picture comments said, “Kuwait, my GIANT litter box!!!” Sure enough, looking at all of Heat Cat’s pictures, were guys in camouflage with army boots on. I emailed back right away to find out if he (my assumption) could share just a bit more about Heat Cat 5. This was the response I got a few minutes later (to keep the integrity of the email, I have kept it as is without editing):
“he is a stray. born here in Kuwait on a US military base we saw him wondering around as a tiny kitten wondering around in 120 heat. so we too him in. they usually euthanize wild animals here so we hide him when some people come around and say he ran off. i think that maybe sometime next week we might get him in quarantine and sent back to Mass.”
Wow, first of all, I could not believe my blog had made it all the way to a soldier in Kuwait and that he was touched enough to reach out to me and share his story. But the real amazing thing is Heat Cat 5 himself, so appropriately tagged “feline war hero” – this extraordinary creature has not only survived the brutal heat and conditions of Kuwait, but he has so gallantly become a companion of a whole base of soldiers, so much so, that despite how much they will miss him, they want to fly him back to the states to an “ordinary” home and life where he can live out his remaining 9 lives in peace, love, and security. Something tells me, however, that Heat Cat 5 will never be anything but extraordinary in the eyes of his compadres. We wish you well Heat Cat and hope you keep us posted on your progress. Stay safe all!
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