The Tao of Flash

When we were kids, we desperately wanted a pet. My parents let us have a fish and a scrappy outside cat, but it wasn't until I was in my preteens that we had our first pet.

Flash was an all black male cat, a stray who wandered into our garage, with the help of a bowl of tuna. My brothers and I figured that if we could get a cat or dog into the garage , my father would see how great it was to have a pet.

It worked, with some encouragement on our part At first we thought Flash was pregnant, but after my father discovered him sleeping in the garage and took him to a vet, we found out he was just an elderly obese cat. So my brothers named him Flash which we called out as he ambled slowly across the floor.

My father actually liked Flash because he was predictable. If you brought Flash a bowl of food, he ate and ambled back to his blanket. If you went to the garage to get a tool, Flash greeted you to see if you had food, then went back to his blanket. He was a lot more predictable than four noisy kids.

Even to this day, I remember finding my dad crying, kneeling down and petting Flash in the garage when he thought no one was looking. I was shocked. Here was my dad, the guy who supposedly hated pets, who wanted nothing to do with them, petting our stray cat. I never told anyone until now that my dad visited Flash in the garage every night and even talked to him. Eventually Flash was allowed into the house. One night my dad just grumbled. "You kids might as well let that cat inside. "

But there you have it. It's part of the magic of pets. They win over the hearts of those you'd think least likely. I call it the Tao of Flash. There's a bit of it in every pet I've lived with.


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