Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 9, 1993 TAG: 9307090226
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ARLINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Motor Cat and her owner, "J. Catman," have been causing double takes in the Washington area for years. After all, it's not every day you see a furry feline astride a motorcycle on the highway.
But on Memorial Day, Catman and Motor Cat were separated.
Catman says he had stopped at a church in Takoma Park, Md., when a disruption frightened the cat, and she took off.
Last week, Catman and a somewhat skinnier Motor Cat were reunited.
"Actually, she found me, a half a block from where the incident took place," said Catman, who declined to give his real name because he doesn't want the attention. He said he is seeking to make the name change legal.
After Motor Cat's disappearance, Catman quit his landscaping job to devote himself to an around-the-clock effort to find his cat. He distributed several thousand fliers in the half-mile where Motor Cat was last seen.
Catman said he virtually abandoned his Arlington apartment to look for the cat.
"I put out food every day, all over the area, hoping she would at least get something to eat," he said.
Last week, he sat down for lunch in a small side street near the church when his cat showed up.
"She appeared, trotting pretty quickly and meowing very loudly," Catman said. And, it turns out, ready for a ride.
"I didn't think she'd be in the mood for a motorcycle ride - I certainly wasn't - so I was going to call a taxi," he said. "Actually she was overly enthusiastic to get on and ride home. She was talking the whole time, or meowing, for lack of a better word. And she was happy to be home."
Catman got the Motor Cat in 1987, when he took his car to a less-than-adept mechanic.
"Actually, he was a lousy mechanic, but he had a very nice cat. So in exchange for his lousy performance, he threw in the cat . . . ."
The cat's strange behavior began when she was put inside the car.
"Driving down the street, I couldn't find the cat, and I looked under the seats. And then, there she was, sitting calmly in the back seat, like a person," Catman said.
Next, the cat began hitching rides on the outside of his car by grabbing onto grooves in the automobile, he said.
A year later, she made the move to the motorcycle.
"She likes the wind, tries to get me to go faster," Catman said. "She gets impatient."
In the past year, Motor Cat also has begun riding on the back of the motorcycle and sometimes on Catman's shoulder.
At home, she's not a pussycat.
"She likes me to put on loud music. . . . She likes Jimi Hendrix. That's what got her thinking, that mind-expansion music."
by CNB