The Purple Cat

We lived in a fairly ratty house in a decent suburb of Gainesville. A couple of graduate students trying to get along on not much money. We had cars but rode motorcycles most of the time to save money and for the fun of it. The house had a gigantic fuel oil heater in the hall that kept the house warmish in the winter when we could afford to by oil. And we had a cat. Spook was a snow white kitten that we picked up somewhere along the way, the way most cats are picked up. From the start he was part of the family. Ate with us, played with us ("space cat" was a favorite game. We would toss him back and forth between us as high as we could safely get him. He loved it and so did we) and slept with us. On the pillow or sheet, moving back and forth from Bob's bedroom to mine as he wanted. He grew into a fine young cat, admired and known through the neighborhood. Who could miss a pure white cat? Well, as luck would have it, he picked up a fungus infection and a little nosing around in the Vet. Science department led us to Gentian Violet as a general topical for animal (and human) fungus infestations. We had lots of that in the lab, so decided to treat him ourselves. We also decided that the best way to get rid of the fungus once and for all times was to dip him rather than spot-treat. So we did. And ended up with a purple/violet cat. Head to toe. Bright. Now, we had no idea that once treated the dye would come off on everything Spook touched, which was everything in the house including any clothes in range. We had purple pillows, sheets, towels, shirts, couch, everything. But, we had absolutely no fungus. One day we got together enough money to get 50 gallons of fuel oil and I was out by the truck talking to the guy as he wound up his hose. The cat was under his truck, unseen by the driver. Suddenly, Spook ran out from under the truck, across the street and disappeared into some azaleas by the house. The guy looked puzzled, shook his head slowly back and forth and muttered "I gotta cut down on drinken". Maybe he did.

Photo: http://www.wildflower.org/, image # 10332