A Marvelous Night for a Moondance

Moonrise, Knoxville, Saturday evening
During the UT/LSU game I decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood. Although there are an overabundance of cars parked everywhere, it’s a fairly quiet stroll during the game (except for the fireworks denoting a score by UT). As I was standing on my street corner, contemplating my direction, an older gentleman came walking towards me carrying a cat carrier. I’ve seen him before. There was no cat in his carrier this time either. So I decided to follow him. I wondered if he was stealing carriers off porches (I’ve been known to keep mine on the front porch). I walked behind him for about a block and then he went between and behind two old houses so I skirted around the house and came up through the alley. He had set the carrier on top of a heating and air unit and suddenly there appeared from under the houses 8 cats, 5 of which were kittens meowing loudly at his feet. Inside the carrier he had 12 cans of cat food and paper plates and bottled water. I introduced myself and then Jerry, with white beard and missing teeth, told me his story. He lives about 5 blocks away but used to live just 3 houses away. He’s been feeding "his cats" every single night for a while now. The cats are wild, of course, just like the ones I feed, but they will walk right up to his feet waiting for the food. He said he does yard work in Sequoyah Hills and then takes the bus to Kroger’s to get the cat food. I asked him why he didn’t buy dry food which is much cheaper and he said, "Oh, the cats really like the canned food!" Twelve cans of cat food for 5 kittens and 3 adult cats seemed like too much but he set out four plates of food for them and then when they had eaten it all, they received second helpings. Twelve cans. I don’t see how he affords it. He said to me, "Now I might have a cold one at the end of the day but I make sure my cats are fed first." Sure enough, when I was up at Sam’s Party Store a little later, there was Cat Man Jerry.....buying himself a Forty.