My Cat Spit McGee

Willie Morris never liked cats - indeed, he had a loathing of cats going back to his childhood. Willie was always a dog man, as were almost all of the people he knew. And when his beloved black dog, Pete, died, and his friends asked, "Will you get another dog?" Willie replied, "No, I'll get another wife first."

And that is precisely what happened - the wife part, anyway. But the woman Willie married turned out to be a cat woman, and on their first Christmas together, a little white waif found starving in a ditch, crept out from behind their Christmas tree with a red Yuletide ribbon around her neck. That kitten eventually became the mother of Spit McGee.

When Spit McGee was three weeks old, he almost died, but he was saved by Willie with a little help from Clinic Cat, who gave him a blood transfusion. Spit McGee was tied to Willie thereafter, a fount of affection, loyalty, crankiness, and enigma - not to mention high and resilient intelligence.