Someone really wants to go with us.

Need a guard cat? Bengals like Emerson are fiercely territorial.

Too bad he's a cat. I don't know how he'd react to traveling on a bicycle, but Emerson has clearly stated his preference. He'd like to go wherever it is that we are going.

He knows something is up. We've moved before, and he does not like to be uprooted, but he has grown accustomed to it with time.

We will see Emma's relatives at Earnest Hemingway's house.

Here's the background: When Nicole and I first moved to Texas, we didn't know anybody. Nicole kept pestering me to get a kitten. Eventually, I buckled. Nicole showed me a photo of some kittens that a local person was giving away. Apparently, They found a stray cat that had given birth to kittens shortly after being taken in.

When we drove to house of said kitten owners, there were only two little ones left. They were beyond tiny. I could fit each one in the palm of my hand. They pierced the air with their incessant, identical meows.

"If you're deciding which cat to go with," the father of the household said, "that one leans more toward his mother, that one [Emerson] is more independent."

Independent. I liked the sound of that. Rugged. Like a Texas cat should be. We chose him.

The independence didn't last long. He clearly missed his litter mates. He viciously attacked us when we wouldn't play with him. And shortly after we got him, we noticed that his tail was longer than his whole body, and his ears were larger than his head. What on Earth did we get?

Apparently, he was a Bengal Cat. That explained the size. He now weighs about 17 pounds (about as much a Trek Madone 5.2, in bicycle terms), and is only slightly overweight for a cat of his breed.

Nicole and I did get a playmate for Emerson--an adult stray his age. The got along swimmingly well, but sadly, the other cat got scared one night and, despite much effort, we never found again.

Enter Emma. When we moved to Maine, it was clear that Emerson needed another cat in his life--he would periodically sink his teeth into my arms if he was bored and wanted someone to play with. We drove to the local animal shelter and found Emma. She was very small for an adult cat and was gray with some off white spots that stood out against her white furry tummy thus the people at the shelter had named her "Dingy". That's the one. Take the cat nobody wants.

Emma and Emerson sort of get along with each other. Emma had been a stray for some time, and is generally uneasy sharing a home with another cat. They do play sometimes, and it keeps Emerson's teeth out of my skin. Literally.

Emma is also unique. She has an extra claw on each foot. This makes her a Hemingway cat. About a hundred or so years ago, sailors all across the Eastern Seaboard took advantage of the cat's ability to hunt mice and took them on ships for pest control. Years of inbreeding these cats resulted in the extra claw on some of these cats. Some sailors in Key West gave a litter to the island's most popular resident, Earnest "Papa" Hemingway. To this day, the Hemingway house in Key West is crawling with cats, many of which show the "extra claw."

Sadly, neither one can come with us on this trip. Emerson clearly wants to go with us, as is evidenced by the photo above. Plus he has let us know that he is onto our plan to leave in another manner, he is constantly under foot and every morning we find him wedged between the two of us in bed purring and snuggling us. Emma has not indicated a strong preference one way or the other.

They will be in good hands, though. In a few minutes, we will drop them off at my sister's house. Alison is a genuine cat lover, and will see that they live well for the duration of the trip. Thank you Alison!

~KM