Brittany Kelley
In January 2019, an orange tabby kitten, with a white belly and front legs, appeared in my backyard, along with a small siamese cat.
They were in the corner of the fence being terrorized by my lovely dog, Kane, who didn’t mean any harm — he was only curious.
Sat in the corner, they stayed, until my parents finally went outside to see what Kane was looking at. I, of course, was elated; I had always wanted a cat and there were two! Taking into account their looks and eventual personalities after we fed them, I named the orange one Ronald Phineas — after Ronald Weasley and Phineas from “Phineas and Ferb” — and Daniel (Danny) Ferb — from “Danny Phantom” and obviously Phineas’ brother, Ferb.
Despite looking different, I assumed the two were brothers, though their attributes were widely distinct. While Danny was trusting of people, he was very suspicious of Kane, often swatting and hissing at his new, adopted brother.
Ron, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. Truth be told, I think he thought Kane was his father, with the way he loved him.
So, here were my two new outdoor cats, who immediately called my home theirs, too.
A few years later, Danny went missing. I’m not sure what happened to him, as my parents and I couldn’t find him in any nearby shelters or in Facebook groups, but I like to think that his trusting nature — and the fact that he always hung out on our front porch — led him to a home with a small kid, who accidentally stole him from our house, filled with love and lots of cuddles.
Now, I don’t want to give Ron a bad reputation, but I don’t think he cared that his brother went missing. He was perfectly fine to spend his days in the backyard with Kane, pretending to be a dog.
Wherever Kane went, Ron went. If Kane was in his dog house, Ron was right next to him. If Kane ran throughout the yard, Ron was sprinting two times as hard to keep up with him.
It wasn’t always this fine and dandy, though. As Kane aged, he grew tired of his feline friend. Sometimes, he would snap at the cat, annoyed by his incessant rubbing and attempts to jump on him. So, after Ron disappeared a year ago, I fear Kane may have celebrated. (Do I just raise selfish animals?)
Over the course of the nearly seven years Ron’s been with us, he would often leave for a week or two at a time, but he would always return, asking for his multiple meals and ready to gain a few pounds back. This changed though, when his disappearance in July 2024 turned from one week to two, three to four, four to eight, to so many weeks I lost count; I was worried he had left us for good.
This nightmare was eventually remedied when he returned one night two weeks ago, meowing at our back door and bothering Kane, as if nothing happened.
Shocked, I raced to the door and pestered him with questions: What happened? Where did you go? Are you hurt? Okay, never mind; don’t answer that because I see somehow half of your ear is missing! Did you lose it defending the gray cat down the street that I call your girlfriend? Or was there a piece of fish too good to lose?
If I really let my imagination run wild, maybe Ron was on a quest for vengeance in his cat society, fighting a rogue tomcat that was attacking a female feline and ensuring that she wasn’t bothered.
Maybe he found a treasure map with a chest of never-ending tuna. Who could pass up on that adventure? It would be on this trail that he faced numerous battles. That would make the loss of half of his ear make sense. Obviously, he lost it in a vicious encounter with the cat-pirates that were guarding the chest. They threatened him, “You’ll lose more than just your ear next time!” Being the smart cat he was, he decided that all the fish he could ever eat wasn’t worth that.
Or, maybe, Ron is just an outdoor cat, who wanted to see more than just a 1,200 square-foot yard.
Who knows what adventures Ron has been on in his time gone. All I know is that he decided to come back to the place he’s always called home — and to the dog he calls dad.
Kelley is news editor of the Hays Free Press and News-Dispatch. She can reached via email at [email protected].
