Betty (the cat)

Betty spent most of her first 3 years of life in an apartment in New York City.  She was the runt of a litter of kittens that my daughter fostered.  The other kittens found homes and Jessica kept Betty.  Her head was so much bigger than her body, she earned the name Betty Boop.   Betty apparently had an eating disorder and would eat anything in front of her.  She did not graze; she gobbled.  Soon her body outgrew her head.  Eventually, Jessica moved to NJ to a studio apartment she owned there.  She hoped to fix the place up and sell it.  Betty and all her paraphernalia overwhelmed the place.  So Jessica decided to bring Betty to the mountains of Pennsylvania to live with me.  I only agreed to do this because I was sure Betty wouldn't last long.  She would do what all the other cats do;  find her way to the highway and get hit by a car.  We already had a cat (Maybelle) that had survived such an accident and now stays away from the road.  Both of her sisters managed to get themselves killed.  
When Betty first arrived, Maybelle approached her as though she wanted to be friends but Betty was having none of it.  It was downhill after that as far as friendship goes.  Maybelle was terrified of Betty and would growl and hiss whenever Betty was near.  Betty made herself right at home and took over as alpha cat while Maybelle cowered under tables and chairs.  Betty was a smart cat.  She could open the cupboard doors when she was looking for food.  She could open the door to the linen closet and jump up on a shelf.  When I moved Maybelle's food to a shelf on a bookcase, Betty got up there and ate it.  One morning I got up and found the bag of dry cat food sitting on the kitchen floor, upright.  Betty had managed to open the door and get the bag out without spilling anything.  Betty would sleep on the bed with us and she preferred to be right in the middle of the bed.  Did I mention she was a big cat?  She was a high maintenance cat, always wanting attention.  She didn't sleep like other cats; if I moved an inch, she would be up and awake, looking and hoping for food.  By her second summer with us, she was more comfortable with the outdoors.  As the nights got warm, she started staying out at night.  She would come in to eat but at 9PM, she was ready to go out for the night.  Then in early September, she wasn't at the window at 6 AM meowing loudly for food.  I last saw her the evening before headed towards the woods on the other side of our driveway.  We haven't seen her since.  People have told me about cats that were missing that turned up months later.  But Betty wasn't the kind of cat to wander off for weeks or months at a time.  I doubt if she found a new home  There aren't that many right near us anyway.  Even though she was a PIA cat, I miss her.  I wish I had taken better care of her.