Licorice's Story

Licorice

Author's Note: The photo enclosed is not of Licorice, it is a photo of a cat whom I met years ago who closely resembled my former cat Licorice. 

In the late fall of 1993, I was looking for another cat since my previous calico cat Puss Puss had disappeared months earlier only to never return home. So, one day during the late fall of 1993 I happened to have browsed through the classifieds from our local community Newspaper in search of finding a free kitten needing a good home. Instead, I had come across an ad in the same newspaper mentioning that there was a 4-year-old cat named Licorice required a good home since its owners were moving to New Zealand and therefore were not able to take Licorice with them due to the expense of him having to be quarantined. So soon afterward I contacted Licorice's former owner who happened to be an extremely nice family of 8 who lived over an hour away from my home. Licorice's owners had come by my place so I could meet Licorice in person. Upon my first meeting with Licorice, I found him too skittish and not very sociable so I didn't quite like him much at first despite he was a genuinely nice looking dark grey and brown tabby cat. However, I didn't have the heart to tell Licorice's owner I didn't want him. Anyhow, I am glad I kept Licorice because a day or two after he arrived at my place he proved himself to be quite the genuinely nice kitty so we both started to bond quite quickly. Not only that but my mother and I even allowed the two youngest children of Licorice's previous owners to come and visit Licorice as many times as they had wanted before they finally had moved to New Zealand. I decided to keep Licorice's actual name since I didn't want to confuse him by changing it to some other new name. However, before Licorice's previous owners had moved away, they had given me a welcome gift to commemorate Licorice's having a new home and family to live with. The gifts I had received from Licorice's previous owners were a lovely cat mug and a nice multicolored I.D. Collar. I later bought an ID tag in the shape of a cat which had Licorice's name and my phone number engraved onto it.

Throughout the years of having Licorice at home with me before my having moved out on my own Licorice always had stuck with me like glue he was more of a one-person/owner type of cat who was always nearby me for most of the time and was also a pretty tame cat who hardly scratched or growled at anyone. I recall my eldest niece Jayden who was 3 or 4 around the time I had Licorice and she even enjoyed having Licorice around or just being nearby him. Every time Jamie arrived at my place the one thing, she always asked me was, " Auntie where is Licorice?" And so, in turn, I would tell Jamie where Licorice was, and if I didn't know of his whereabouts the hunt for him would be initiated by Jamie. Jamie's younger sister Kristina also seemed to like Licorice despite she was too young to fully enjoy having him around her. After I had moved out on my own in 1996 I was unable to takeLicorice with me to my new apartment so I left Licorice at home with my mother although I have visited him many times and each time Licorice was very loyal to me, whenever he saw my arrival during each visit he would run outside to greet me or I would see him sitting on the edge of the living room window peering out against the window.

As I had stayed over at my mother's Licorice would always sleep with me in my old bedroom it was as if he never had forgotten me even once after I had moved out on my own. After a while, I brought Licorice into my new apartment but he didn't seem happy there so I brought him back to stay at my mother's place where he stayed until my mother had sold her house in 1997. After my mother had sold her house I once again had taken Licorice into my place and surprisingly he adjusted very well to his new surroundings. The neighbor's young daughter Catherine who I was also helping to raise enjoyed Licorice as well and the same as the other children who lived at my apartment complex.

During the years I have owned Licorice he had some interesting quirks for example his favorite foods were KFC Chicken and Doritos' and during the night when things got too quiet as I had slept Licorice would howl loudly until I would yell at him to quiet down as to not wake my neighbor's next door during the night. I also came up with some unique nicknames for Licorice as well such as " Pook" and "Licky".