Christmas Day - Guam 1973 - Navy Life

We had just moved to Guam from Okinawa, and were living in a hotel near Tumon Bay. (The equivalent of Waikiki.) It was Christmas Day, and we were opening our presents. The phone rang, and it was the quaratine area on Guam telling us that our black cat, Charcoal, had escaped from her cage, and had disappeared into the boonies. Alarmed, we all (6, soon to be 7) dropped everything and drove to the quarantine station. We tromped through the tropical vegetation for miles and hours, calling her name, and even saw a black cat from a distance, but didn't find her. With great sadness we returned to our hotel, hoping and praying that someday soon, we would have our kitty back.



After the new year, we rented a house in Tumon Heights, still waiting for on-base housing. The kids adopted a stray kitten, and named her Scope, because she had such bad breath. (We found out later that our neighbors were feeding her food laced with lots of garlic.) We lived there for 3 or 4 months. One day when getting off the school bus, Kim found Scope dead by the road. Another sad situation. However, that same afternoon, the quaratine people called us said that Charcoal had sneaked back into the cage area, and they caught her. She had had a little bell on, and they could hear her "out there" in the boonies.

So once again we all went to the quarantine station expecting to see a scrawny, emaciated, pathetic half dead kitty, and low and behold, she was fat and beautiful. She was so fat that I didn't think it was our cat. Whatever she subsisted on in the boonies sure agreed with her, but she must have gotten lonely, and wanted some of that good boxed cat food! After identifying some little white hairs in a personal area on her body, (and, "Come on, Mom, she has her bell on.") we were able to cancel out the remaining time on her quarantine, and take her home that day. Talk about happy kids!!!!! It was a good day.