This article originally appeared in the Methow Valley News, 14 November 2018
Meet Crick, aka “Fat Daddy”. Tree climber, mouse hunter,
pink toed, yellow eyed, black cat with nine lives and a crooked tail that ends
in a heart-shaped spiral. A heart shaped tale, if you will.
Crick went missing three years, 250 miles, and three moves
ago – and last week he miraculously reunited with his family here in the Methow
Valley. I met Crick in Mandy Shoger’s living room. He gazed lovingly at her and
purred while she stroked his fur and told as much of his story as she could
piece together.
Seventeen years ago, Mandy decided to procure two kittens to
keep her older cat, Natalie, company. She
found littermates Crick and Roderigo at a shelter that micro-chipped each
adopted animal. The shelter workers named Crick for his crooked spiral shaped
tail he was born with. Crick and Roderigo settled in, keeping Natalie company,
and the rest of the neighborhood well entertained.
“He’s always been a sweet boy,” Mandy explained, “he went
for walks around Ballard with us.” Crick and Roderigo found other ways to enjoy
the sights and sounds of Ballard. They periodically climbed a tree and stepped
out onto the roof of a neighborhood gym, enjoying the bustling view of the
sidewalk below. When they tired of that entertainment, they struggled to get back
down. Firefighters from the station across the street extended their tall
ladders to the curious cats, recording the rescue and sharing the PR video
across media venues. Crick and Roderigo never tired of climbing the tree to
enjoy the view from the roof of the gym, and the firefighters seemed to enjoy
taking a break out of their day to rescue the cats. “It happened several
times,” Mandy said, rolling her eyes. “I was always taking brownies or
doughnuts to the fire station.”
After over a decade, Mandy moved from Ballard to Green Lake.
Unfortunately, after a few weeks, the landlord decided to sell the first rental
Mandy moved into and she had to quickly find another place. Mandy and the cats
moved to a less than ideal home. “It was a busy area,” she said, “lots of businesses,
a freeway on-ramp, and many parking garages.” Crick decided to take a stroll
one morning, and failed to return. Mandy put up fliers all over the
neighborhood. For months she walked in every direction, calling his name. She
joined multiple facebook groups to ask for help finding Crick. “There were a
lot of false hopes,” she recalled, “lots of black cats were found, but none
with his distinctive crooked tail.”
A year ago, Mandy moved to the Methow Valley with her
husband Nate. “I felt so bad leaving, what if Crick was still out there?” After
two years of searching, Mandy accepted that Crick was gone, but still had this
feeling he was alive. She dreamt of him often.
Two weeks ago, Mandy received a phone call from Roosevelt
Station Vet Care in Seattle. A man named Ed had brought Crick into the office
to treat an ear infection. After a routine microchip scan, Ed was surprised to
learn the cat, who he had called “Fat Daddy”, had a microchip. He thought Fat
Daddy was a stray.
The vet office did a diligent search for Crick’s owner, but immediately
came up against a wall. The seventeen-year-old microchip was made long before
cell phones, and the company no longer produced the chip. The vet office was
able to locate the manufacturer who still had Mandy’s name on record. Luckily,
Mandy is a successful artist with a unique last name. The top 40 links in a Google
search all yield Mandy’s Foxtail Pottery art and contact information. The top
link was to her TwispWorks studio.
Ed agreed to meet Mandy for a reunion with Fat Daddy Crick.
The good man bought Crick toys, fed him, provided vet care, and even built
Crick a little insulated hut. Mandy was certain that Ed had bonded with Crick
and she didn’t want to put extra stress on the cat, but Ed insisted that she
take him home. “Are you sure you are ok with me taking him?” she asked. Ed
shrugged and in a thick English accent proclaimed Crick loud and annoying. This
whole time, Crick was living just nine blocks away from where he first went
missing.
On the coffee table in front of the couch where Crick
snuggled with Mandy, sat an open box from TabCat. Collar tags and a radio
receiver are a more immediate method of keeping track of the cat with a
heart-shaped crick at the end of his tail.
