At the age of 8, he was my first very own pet.  I had always wanted a cat.  Our bond was so strong , no one could break it.  Everyone in town knew Muffin.  He was something else.  He used to walk on a leash through town with me.  My favorite store was Ben Franklin's Five and Dime.  I always had to stop in everyday after school to get my Jolly Rancher fix for 3 cents. With Muffin always at the end of my lead, he would follow along. People slowed in their cars for a closer look from disbelief that I was actually walking a cat on a leash! When we reached the Five and Dime store, I would leave Muffin outside on the Plastic Rocking horse right outside the door. I would put a quarter in the slot and off he went.."Yahoo! Cowboy Muffin". If the horse ride was over before I came outside..Muffin would stay on the horse but lean far enough to scratch on the window. Ms Pickles would call out for me and I went outside to drop another quarter in. And off he went on another ride till I came out. He always had a crowd watching him in astonishment.

Everyday when I went to school...he some how always found a way out of the house (to this very day I do not know how) and would spend all day at Dr. Melaney's office. He was our town vet. Then he would leave everyday at the same time to meet me at my bus stop!  I never even knew that he spent the days at the Vets office till Dr Melaney himself told me. He said that he would sit on his counter all day..during surgeries and vet visits with other clients..cats, dogs birds and any other small animal that would come to his office. Dr Melaney said that he would not even ever jump down till around 2:30 in the afternoon when then he would go to the door and scratch and meow to be let out so he could meet me.  Dr Melaney still talks about him to this very day and shares it with his other clients.

Eventually, I decided I wanted to teach him something a little different. When I would eat away from the dinner table..he would always reach for my hand as just to tell me that he thought I should "share". So I get an idea...I taught Muffin how to hold things in his paws. I started with utensils. He would eat with a fork or a spoon..he did not care. I then had some fun trying to get him to hold and drink out of a cup. My mom put a stop to that after all the spill stains! Then one day when I got an ice cream from Naugles (a Mexican restaurant chain -now know as Del Taco)...he tried to grasp it. So...you guessed it..I taught him how to hold and eat an ice cream cone in his paws.  He was a huge hit at the restaurant. People from inside the restaurant including the workers would come out and see my cat eat his ice cream cone that eventually became a daily event.

One day my grandmother got really sick and had to live with us and she was deathly allergic to cats..so my dad built him a "cat house" for him to live in outside which we filled with straw. He lived there and did not seem to mind for about 6 months. I went out Thanksgiving morning 1983 and he was gone!  It broke my heart!  Friends and family all volunteered to help me find Muffin. With no happy outcome. My mom cried with me at night knowing the sick ache in my heart. I had ads in the paper that I personally paid with my allowances for 8 months..plus I volunteered at the local animal sanctuary "just in case" somehow he would show up there. I wanted to be anywhere that he might be. I never saw him again and I still think about him every day.