THE CACHE
You are looking for a large-sized, black ammo box with a
cantuland-geocache-logo painted on the sides. Contents include a
gold Sacagawea dollar coin, a Kansas buffalo quarter, a
Lewis-and-Clark edition nickel, a bracelet hand crafted by the
wonderful Mrs. cantuland, and lots of other miscellaneous trade
goodies.
The location for this geocache was chosen because of the effort
given by the people here to help all animals. They use their skills
indoors but the container is outdoors. Permission has been granted
to place the cache on their property. No night-time caching is
allowed for security reasons, so stop by during daylight only. If
you'd like, you can step into the office and say hello to the cat
who guards the front desk.
My cat named Bello
This geocache is dedicated
to a cat that I lost on June 13, 2007. His name was Bello,
pronounced "Bayo", Spanish for beautiful. He lived to be a very old
cat and finally died of living too long. He used to be an outside
cat, then had to become an inside cat to keep him out of trouble.
He always wanted to go back outside. He would sit and look out the
window for hours. I'm sure he was remembering what it was like to
chase the birds and walk on the hoods of cars. He liked to be the
center of attention. If the kids were paying attention to toys,
Bello prefered that they paid attention to him. Sometimes he would
try to interupt a card game. We kept playing the card game and he
kept laying on the cards. Bello liked to play with anyone and was
very tolerant of toddlers who wanted to pick him up, hang on to his
tail, or even cover him with a dirt pile, a pile of leaves, or a
pile of kids' swimming pool accessories.
When family was sick, Bello was the nanny cat. If you just
couldn't give him some attention, then he would give it to you. He
would sit at your side all day for days if necessary, until you got
better. You couldn't fake it either; he always knew when you really
were sick. You didn't get any of the "nanny attention" if you were
faking it. Bello believed that babies were always in need of a
nanny cat to sit and protectively watch over them.
When he "pounced" on you, he would look like he was the vicious
lion attacking its prey, but Bello's teeth would barely touch you,
more of a bump, and his slapping from his front paws was always
pulled back so you barely felt anything at all. If you teased him
and he got you with his back feet, he wouldn't use any claws. It
was a game to him. He liked to play...by the rules...and if you
crossed the line and teased him too much, he would stop playing and
look you right in the eyes and give you a scowl, not a threatening
"I'm going to get you" look, but more of a "You're not playing
right so I quit" look.
When it was time to take a nap, Bello learned how to use the
curtain to make himself a hammock on the top of the couch so he
could soak in the sun. He loved his naps. Sometimes we would find
him napping on a pile of stuffed animals.
Bello tried to give the impression that he was a grumpy old man,
but we knew the difference. He was very good at ignoring people and
"pretended" to not be interested. When he acted like he wasn't
interested in something, we could tell by the flick of his tail
what he really was thinking. If he was annoyed, he'd slowly raise
his tail and whop it down to make a loud thump. When he was
interested in something, even if he wanted to pretend that he was
ignoring you, the tip of his tail would barely twitch over and
over. If you thought he was sleeping, you could call his name. If
he was awake, his tail would unfailingly give one gentle twitch.
His tail always gave him away.
Back when Bello was a kitten, he hung out with the kittens at
the neighbor's house. He and Spots became best buds. Bello was a
black cat and Spots was a white cat. Bello was purchased from the
pet store, and Spots came from a stray mommy cat.
They would wander together like brothers and torment the
neighborhood dogs, laying just barely out of reach of a dog's chain
while they flopped around in the dust. Bello was good at catching
mice. Spots was good at stealing Bello's mice. As they grew up,
Spots sought other territory and left our neighborhood, leaving
Bello to terrorize the area by himself. Bello eventually was
befriended by our dog; stealing the dog's food was even easier
then. After Bello became an inside cat, he still was caught every
now and then stealing dog food from the bag; he knew he wasn't
supposed to do that and had to be sneaky about it.
As the story of nine lives goes, we think Bello used up all of
his nine lives and borrowed some more from the other cats in the
area.
- One day Bello came home in a winter storm with ice all over
him. He looked like someone dumped water all over him. He got to
spend the rest of the storm indoors.
- Another time he came home with a sore on his chest. We took him
to the vet who said that he found some pieces of bird shot in his
chest. Someone had taken a shot at Bello and missed. Pieces must
have hit the ground in front of him, bounced, and got lodged in his
chest. The wound healed.
- Once he got too close to our dog. She darted to him and stuck
her mouth completely over his head, then backed off without biting.
Caught by surprise, Bello was shocked and his eyes were open very
wide. He learned the message that she was still the bigger of the
two.
- He had many occassions where he could have bit the dust, but he
always came through. He did, however, suffer a major
traumatization. Bello used to lay in the streets and make cars
drive around him...until he got run over. We took him to the vet,
surely thinking that this was the end for him. The vet said that he
had never seen a cat that bad and live through it. Well, he lived
through it. He suffered from permanent minor sinus damage and some
crooked teeth, but other than that, he recovered. That was the
event where we decided that he could no longer go outside.
He lived many years as an inside cat. He got to greet a new
kitten and watch it grow up to also be an old indoor cat. After
many years, Bello finally lived too long.
Our family will miss Bello.
REMEMBER:
- Make the fair trade.
- Log your visit.
- Leave the site better than you found
it.
- Protect the environment —
always.
- Educate those around you.
- Find another cache!
Good luck, and may all your cache dreams
come true.
Congratulations to robfire820 for being First To Find!
