THE McELROY ZOO: Meet Thomas, the aloof loner of my menagerie

By David McElroy · August 14, 2011

Thomas wasn’t supposed to come live with me. He was supposed to go live on a farm. If a woman had done what she had said she was going to do, he never would have come home with me. He would have spent time chasing bugs and mice on a farm. Who knows? All I know is I’m glad it worked out as it did.

I first saw a little kitten hanging around outside a hair salon a few blocks from my house. I assumed he belonged to someone, but I didn’t see anyone to ask. The place where he stayed was right next to a busy road and it was a block away from a busy highway. So it wasn’t a safe place for a kitten.

I finally got the chance to ask someone after a few days. The salon was closed, but one of the haircutters was there and happened to step outside as I was passing by. She said he had been there for a couple of weeks, but nobody knew anything about him other than that he was skinny and reasonably friendly. We talked about it for a little while and she decided she was going to take him to live at someone’s farm. She seemed sincere, so I assumed he was going to have a home. She said she was going to take him the next day.

The next day came and went, but the kitten was still there. Another day passed and he was still there again when I walked by. Then another day and another. After it had been a week, I couldn’t keep leaving him out there alone. I scooped him up and walked home with him in my arms. He purred as I walked.

When he joined the household, there were only two other cats. Oscar was the senior cat at 5 years of age, and Henry was only 1 year old. Thomas and Henry became friends quickly. They were soon sleeping together and were quite happy with each other. Oscar, on the other hand, never forgave me for allowing Henry in, much less Thomas and all the ones who came after him.

Other than spending some of his time with Henry, though, Thomas was a loner, and he’s become more of one with age. He’s about 17 years old now, so he’s been around long enough to see other cats and dogs come and go. He’s still healthy and happy — but he spends his time alone or in my lap, not with the others.

He’s among the calmest and most good-natured cats I’ve ever had. He will purr at the drop of a hat and won’t complain about much of anything.

As a kitten, he was the most determined fellow I’d ever seen. If he attempted something — whether it was picking up a piece of food with his paw or moving an object or pretty much anything he tried — he would work and work and work until he did it, if it was even possible. He never seemed frustrated. He just seemed focused. That’s how he got his name. Thomas Edison tried thousands of materials as the filament of the light bulb he was trying to make. They all kept failing, but he kept trying patiently, over and over. Thomas has always done the same thing, in his own cat way.

Even though Thomas has been a loner, I’ll leave you with one odd exception that I still can’t explain. A few years ago, the patriarch of my cat colony was dying. Remember Oscar, the one who never would let Thomas (or any other cat) near him? As Oscar lay dying for his last day or so, Thomas wouldn’t leave him. For about the last 36 hours of Oscar’s life, Thomas stayed right with him, wherever he was. He even skipped eating that day. The picture at the bottom of the column is from that day, and that’s Oscar in his last few hours.

For whatever reason, Thomas seemed to know that something serious was wrong. What sort of instinct was that? I have no idea. All I know is that it was touching to see that he wouldn’t leave his old companion’s side, even if Oscar had never cared for him. That’s just the kind of cat Thomas has been. He’s calm and aloof, but when push comes to shove, he’s still loving and kind. He’s been a very good friend.

Editor’s note: If you enjoyed meeting Thomas, you might enjoy previous stories and pictures about Sonny, Alex, Bessie, Molly, Oliver, Munchkin, Sam, Maggie, Henry, Lucy, Amelia, Charlotte and Emily.

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On a live awards show Sunday night, one man made a joke about a female celebrity. The husband of the celebrity was offended and hit the man who made the joke. Or maybe it was staged for entertainment. Who knows? Who cares? Social media is full of discussion — and even arguments — about this idiocy today. This baffles me. Let’s assume for a moment that the event happened as reported. People have been having such idiotic fights ever since there have been humans. Half the bars in the world see such brief dustups regularly. It simply doesn’t matter. The fact that so many people believe they need to talk about this — or even need to have opinions about it — is more evidence of the bizarre media brainwashing that convinces many to care passionately about brain-dead trivia. Your life will be happier and saner if you focus on yourself, your family and your friends, not on whatever scripted (or spontaneous) bilge that the media wants to pipe into your home.

I’m in the middle of migrating this website to new servers this week. This means you might encounter some unexpected behavior until I get all the bugs worked out. Clicking on my links (including this one) might cause your browser to give you the message that it’s a site without a current security certificate. It’s not actually unsafe, but there’s something which isn’t yet set up for the security certificate. I apologize for any such errors you might encounter while the process is going on. If you notice any problems with content which didn’t migrate properly, I would appreciate you letting me know the details at davidmcelroy@mac.com. Thanks for your patience.

I often wonder what animals think when they look at us and consider the society we’ve created. Yes, I know this is fanciful and unrealistic, but what if they could? Would they be astounded at how we treat each other? Would they be disgusted by the ugliness and pettiness which fill so many of our daily interactions? The truth is that I’m feeling pretty disgusted with humanity tonight. I made the mistake of reading some online interactions that I should have avoided — and it sickened me. The people involved appeared to be vile and stupid and arrogant. I wish I could pretend they’re a tiny minority, but I know better. It’s times such as this when I most need to escape much of “civilization” and disconnect from their world. If humans are going to be worthy of “ruling this planet,” we have a lot of growth to do. And I fear that growth is nowhere in sight. So my buddy Thomas, above, and all of his friends would be right to judge us harshly — and to think, “Why do you folks get to be in charge?”

I should have expected this, but I honestly didn’t. The article I wrote last week about disagreements over treatment for autistic children brought me angry emails. You could almost call it “hate mail.” Of the five emails about it so far, two have been to tell me that I’m wrong to even listen to critics of the most popular therapy for autistic children — and the other three tell me I’m wrong for not condemning the treatment as the “obvious” abuse it is. If you read the article, you know I didn’t take a position on the issue, because I simply don’t know enough to have an opinion. But by talking about the issue, I stepped into a heated controversy. The emails from the two sides convinced me of nothing. But they did give me even more empathy for the unfortunate parents who have to figure out for themselves where the truth lies for their children.

Have you ever had what you thought was a new idea — and then discovered that “old you” had the same idea years ago? I had that experience tonight. And it’s been wonderful. I came up with an idea tonight for a very short satirical film that would be a promotion for a fictitious college. The point is to make the college promote — as good things — everything which is actually terrible about most modern colleges. Then I remembered a fake college that I invented back when I was in college. I had created student recruitment brochures and various newsletters back then, so I decided to call my “new” college by the same name I’d invented years ago: Ochita College. As I searched my computer for any old material I might still have about Ochita from the past, I discovered an email I sent to someone in 2009 — outlining essentially the same idea which I came up with tonight. Since I didn’t remember writing that, it felt like magic. So my next film project just might be this one instead. If all goes well, you might soon see “Ochita College: Your Future Starts Here.” This should be fun.

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