And so it began

  And so it began

     I wonder if Derrick Garbell knows he changed my life one afternoon back in 1975. It was a tumultuous time when I managed to lose my job, sprain my ankle badly and get dumped by a girl friend who was too  good for my behavior. I moped around my apartment on Church Lane, getting high, listening to music and avoiding work as best I could. Then Derrick popped up with something cradled in his jacket. It was a tiny Russian Blue kitten with personality plus. I had never owned a cat and even the ones that were always around our homes growing up were not in my care. I was a dog guy 100%  I named this little gentlekitten Johnny Cazar after a ridiculous roller derby character played by a struggling Mickey Rooney who had run out of silly musicals and was trying to reinvent himself on the screen in "The Fireball!". Unlike the Mick, Cazar was wonderfully loveable and won over everyone immediately. After a week I could not imagine living without the boy and for some reason I developed a way of communicating with him by whistling. I still do it and it has worked with a dozen cats beginning with my dear Johnny. He loved to chase an old broken car aerial and stoned pals like Greg would give him a workout on the carpet. He was also welcome to maul the thrift store furniture. While he was attached to me and somewhat shy I made the terrible decision of forcing him to go outside my apartment, stupidly thinking cats had to be out in the wild. Unfortunately the outdoors included the very busy street outside my door that was often an alternative to the sometimes clogged freeway. Yet, Johnny thrived and made friends all around the neighborhood, especially with VaVa who lived next door. VaVa was a rather vapid but sexy young woman who had a cat door on her back porch that Johnny liked to hop through and take naps on her bed. She encouraged him and fed him treats much to my ire. I put notes on his collar and begged her to not allow him in her apartment but it was mostly because I wanted him all for myself. During the stress of unemployment and my complete confusion as to my future I did some risky stuff that shocks me to think of it now. One of those foolish acts involved reaching through the cat door and breaking into VaVa's apartment in attempts of scaring Johnny off her bed and forcing him to go home. I wandered around her apartment which is called buglary but I never took anything except my own cat. One time she actually returned home unexpectadly coming up the front stairs to her door with me standing near the couch a few feet away. Young and nimble,  I was able to dart quickly to the kitchen and ease my way out the kitchen door as she came in and headed for the bathroom. If she had spotted me I most surely would have faced the police. During that time I was stuck in neutral and this offered some drama in a dreadfully dull existence. Because I scared him from visiting next door Cazar began to wander around a wider territory and became a known celebrity cat in the building next door where an old lady begged me to keep him indoors. I laughed at her foolishness. Then one day he disappeared and my heart sank as days went by and I realized just how much I loved him and how empty my apartment was without him. I was wearing a cast from a badly sprained ankle I suffered over at Barrington park so when I went out to search for Johnny I was on crutches. Then one day as I was driving I saw some beady eyes underneath a dumpster and I jumped out and saw my Cazar hunkered down underneath the receptacle. I whistled and he came to me. He had been returned to my sorry self as a miracle and I was exhilarated. Life went on and I managed to get into a therapy group with a fine counsellor Richard Wander who brought me off the ledge somewhat. So, it was that one day I returned home and bounded up the back stairs whistling to him that I was home and dinner would be served. However, he did not move but leaned against my door without stirring. When I got close I could see he was dead. This was to be the first time my heart was broken by the end of a cat companion's life but it caused me to wail uncontrollably and bring neighbors out to attempt to console me which was impossible.The kindly old lady from next door found him in the street where he had run to chase a mouse or something and was hit by a car. The grief was as agonizing as any in my entire life and I drove to my Mom's house in Long Beach and burried hin behind the side gate while blubbering my heart out. It was near the end of my time in West LA and I wanted him to be near my blood. No one could understand this love and grief like my Mom and she stood with me as I put him in the earth. Twenty years later, after I had said goodbye to his successor, the great Comptess some workmen digging in search of a water line ran into his bones and put them back where they are to this day. The best part of the tale or tail of Johnny Cazar is that he set the stage for a dozen other wonderful creatures who made my life so much better and full of love. He was the godfather of Creason felines even though he only lived just past a year.