Several people have asked in various ways... so, the slightly expanded version of the Mr. Ruffles/Quazi story... I have to start with, in my opinion, this isnt the most most interesting adventure Quasi ever went on, but it was the most mysterious from our perspective. When I was in college, my grandparents were visiting Marietta for the summer with their motorhome. While they were in town, my father and I decided to take a trip to New York for a long weekend, and dad left Quazi with my grandparents. Here, you must understand that my grandparents, when it comes to their pets, are not incredibly restrictive within reason, and as long as it is not hurting anyone if a pet wants to do something, they will let him do it. Quazi was used to lounging on the porch roof at our house, so he kept trying to get out to lay in the sun with my grandparents, so they let him. While they were not paying attention, he slipped away into the brush and disappeared for a few days. When Dad and I got back, my grandmother had to inform us that they had lost the cat. This had lead to vigorous name calling and kitty calling from the confines of their camper lot (and yes, I challenge you to say the last part of that sentence 5 times fast), but to no avail. Over the next few days we all kept an eye out for him along the bike path and in other spots in the neighborhood. Around dinner time on the third day, my grandparents called and told use Quazi was home but there was an issue, so dad grabbed me up and we headed over to their camper to see what was wrong. The issue was that he looked fatter than when he left, was wearing a self-bedazzled collar with Mr. Ruffles on it, and smelled of cheap perfume... as in, someone had sprayed him down in it.... We never figured out where he went, what had happened, nor did we really want to. It was however, the last time he ever wandered far. Towards the end of his life he became and indoor-outdoor cat, and he would spend days on end outside in the summer months, but even if he could, he never wandered away again. I guess the smell of that perfume stuck with him like it did the rest of us...
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 16:05:42 +0000