I want you to know how much my daughter and I enjoy your website. I lived in Hawaii for 32 years and my Mom and sister both live in Kaaawa.
I'm particularly interested in Mr. Toby. I got a cat, who by all accounts could have been Mr. Toby's "grandfather", some 17 years ago. His name was JoJo and he died last May. He was the "light of my life" besides my kids and husband and like all pets, I miss him terribly, but he was special.
I wanted to know if you have seen another cat who looks like Mr. Toby? I keep hunting here, in New Hampshire, on all the websites of the animal shelters hoping to find a cat who has similar attributes and haven't even come close.
By the way, Jojo was a feral cat from under an old house down near the piers in Kalihi who i "agreed" to take care of until the guy who found him could find an apartment who would allow cats. That never happened,.
I took Jojo to a vet because he was so tiny...I had to take half a beer box and put in front of the litter box so he could use it as a step to get into it...that's pretty small. The vet said he was probably a poorly nourished 5 week old kitten and I could sit him in the palm of my hand.
Jojo was too smart for his own good sometimes but he was an amazement for all our company as he'd empty women's purses to see what was inside, retrieve a small ball when thrown, come when he was called like a dog, aptly play hide and seek and watch tv commercials and shows who had "strange" sounds on them that attracted him...for those noises he'd get up from a nap in another room and come running just to sit and see what it might be.
Once, a friend visited and brought along his friend, a vet. The vet said he'd never seen a cat with such a "high" order of intelligence...and that was Jojo.
Jojo loved wheat products as objects of interest and we had to put a lock on the pantry door because he knew how to get into it. If he could get a slice of bread or a roll he'd push it off the counter to one particular dog we had at the time.
One Christmas, after I'd spent many hours wrapping Christmas presents and putting them under the tree, I awoke the next morning for find a trail of dried macaroni from the pantry to the tree and all around the bottom, on top of the presents, the macaroni sat there...apparently he'd dragged the already opened bag from the pantry (which we forgot to lock) across the living room and through the family room and even circled the tree leaving the mostly empty bag and left the remains where he'd started his loop. There he sat, next to the bag as if to show me what he'd done.
Needless to say you can never replace one animal with another, but we have an older dog who doesn't take to new things well so I've been waiting, but I'm wavering, as you can imagine. 8-)
If you EVER see a cat who looks like Mr. Toby and who needs a home I'd love to hear about it...I flew Jojo here and I'm sure I could do that same with another cat. 8-)