I’ve always liked cats.   My affinity for felines goes back to my childhood.  As some of you know, I spent a portion of my youth in Saudi Arabia (more posts on that someday) and befriended a “sand cat”, a relatively rare feline that had wandered into our walled compound.  I fed it every day and, in turn, it would wait for me at the bus stop each afternoon and walk home with me.  We had an understanding, it seemed. I would feed it, but it would remain a creature of the desert. Good thing.  When Iranian revolutinaries overran the the US embassy in Tehran in 1979, the company my Dad worked for evacuated us on 2 day’s notice for our safety. I  never saw my sand cat friend again.

As an adult, I just find dogs very restraining (even though we have dogs). You can’t leave your house for too terribly long without having to find someone to let them out or board them someplace.  A cat, with ample food and water, can fend for themselves alone just fine with maybe just someone dropping by to make sure they haven’t gotten into anything.
We have a houseful of indoor cats.  I know there’s a huge debate on outdoor vs. indoor, but I side with indoor (that’s a post for another time).
Anyway, our black cat Kierney (SIGH, Rachel names them, I never get to) is enjoying his last evening with four legs.Ah, nothing like preparing to do a laundry load of towels and having the cat take up residence on them.
 An aggressive tumor on his back right leg is leaving us with no other option than to get the leg removed.  Treating it otherwise would A) be cost prohibitive and B) wouldn’t guarantee the cancer wouldn’t spread elsewhere.  He’s a beautiful black cat and I feel bad for him, but the veterinarian says he’ll do fine with three legs.  Does anyone out there have any experience with “three-legged” cats?  If so, how did they do?  I’ll let you know how he fares after the surgery.
UPDATE: The vet rescheduled the surgery for about 10 days from now…