Yodel was four years old on April 1, 2005. Born in San Antonio under the house of a woman who didn't like him, his two orange brothers, his mom — or probably his dad, much either.

While I was visiting four weeks short of four years ago, on the way to some family event down there, that person brought the yet-to-be-named Yo and his sibs to a vet where my niece Joyce worked.

Said person asked the vet to euthanize them, but he didn't. He farmed them out. I'd been looking for an orange cat is why Joyce told me about them, and I got pick of what was left of the litter. This one chose me by coming to the front of the cage, and I took him home — 280 miles in my car.

 

Pink Nosed Cat in his bathroom window perch

 

Yo mewed and cried for long, painful (for both of us) miles until I happened to play some tunes by Jimmie Rogers, the Singing Brakeman, who yodels. When Jimmie yodeled, my small orange wonder stopped his panicked screeching. Thus the name.

In addition to the things normal cats appreciate, Yo likes peanut butter, cotton (T-shirts, sox, dress shirts, towels), spinach, up-ending cockroaches in the middle of the night, anything leather, bras and biting me. And he plays a mean game of patty-cake.

He lets women pet him while he's standing, but I only get to when he's on his back in my arms or when he's fully cozied in while we're watching TV.

His theme song is "You Are Always In The Way," sung to the tune of Willie Nelson's "You Are Always On My Mind." Considering what must have been a traumatic kittenhood, he's adjusted remarkably well, though he can be a bit skittish when reached for in any semblance of sudden.

Also known as Attuc (Almost totally useless cat), Yo never learned the supposedly instinctual behavior of covering it up, although he's a better groomer than I am. Still, he's mostly pretty nice a cat, pink-nosed, orange variety.

Happy Birthday, Yo.

 

 

Twisty Candles for the Orange Cat
and wine for the humans

That's all there was to this story when we ran it as our first-ever April Fool's Day Special cover, terribly appropro, because the Yo was actually born, near as I can calculate, on April Fools Day in 2001.

So, on the day of his 4th Birthday, I was nice to the cutie kitty all day long, and that night Anna and I had a little party for him where we took some pictures of the birthday boy.

I've made and given the yo toys and other “presents” over the years, but till Anna gave him three slightly human scented but mostly clean spanking white cotton sox that he more or less opened himself, nobody's ever brought him a wrapped gift.

He definitely appreciated them. We'll see how long it takes him to shred them. Usually it's a coupla months for one. Three could last through summer...

Anna luring The Yo out of the kitchen
cupboards with a salmon treat

Anna also brought twisty birthday candles and a marvelous rich dessert, which I can't spell any better than I can the spinach Keesh — and salad, all of which we shared with the Orange One. He eventually slurped some of the salad dressing but never seemed much interested in the pie. He did like the dark, triangular kittie Zonkers, however.

Yo checks out his four birthday candles.

We didn't want Yo to have to blow out the candles, but eventually he did show some interest in the colorful flamey thing we placed before him, and we hoped he'd at least try the pie and crust we left him, just in case.

4 candles for the Yo

He's not always this demonstrative, of course, but after a little sox waving, Anna got The Yo to fully engage with his bright new presents. Like we really needed to remind him how to disintegrate a cottom garment. It was grand fun to watch someone else spar with the furry little (okay, big) birthday boy, though.

Anna, the birthday sock and Yo in his
natural habitat under the coffee table

 

Yo resting in Daddy's lap after an exciting Fourth Birthday Party, his first.
I'd been wanting just such a close-up picture for years, but it was finally
possible with another set of hands and a couple more eyes.
Photograph by J R Compton and Anna Palmer

 

It didn't come to me right away, or we mighta done this sooner. But when I realized that the Yo’s birthday actually was April Fool's Day and just how utterly goofy it is to put pictures of my cat on the top of my website, I couldn't turn down the possibility, if only for a tad over one day.

No sense gettin' too serious about this art stuff. Specially when there's cute cats aplenty out there.