The Grace Kelley Story

My big brother Owen is the family storyteller... And he sent along this wonderful story a little while ago - and I just had to share it.

So, without further ado, here is The Grace Kelley Story as told by my brother Owen (isn't Owen a great Irish name? I was dying to use it, but, yaknow, already taken and stuff, so the little man got a different Irish name instead, to go with my hubby's Puerto Rican last name.)

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On March 30 I met my friend Kevin Rich for a day of ice fishing at Tully Dam in Athol. ( Well; the dead end road where we park to get onto the reservoir is in Athol.) Kevin had some errands to run before meeting me so I had some time to wait for him. After waiting only a couple of minutes I heard a truck approach.

I thought it was too soon to be Kevin, I was correct. A young man pulled up in his truck. He got out of his truck with "Grace" in his hands. He informed me that he was abandoning her. I asked him why he wasn't bringing the kitten to a shelter. He didn't answer.. He jumped into his truck and sped away. ( I should have noted his plate number but did not.) I was sitting on the tailgate of my truck and "Grace" ran right over to me and jumped onto my lap.

A few minutes passed and Kevin showed up. He got out of his truck and asked what my new friends name was. ( Grace is completely gray.) I said she must be named "Smokey" and told him the story of how I had just met her. As we were offloading gear and firewood from my truck I dropped a piece of firewood onto "Smokey's" tail. She let out a screech and ran up a nearby pine tree.

We went fishing for the day. When we came up the hill at the end of the day Kevin must have seen me looking for the kitten. He called out "Here kitty, kitty" a number of times. I said Kev, I already have a cat at home, I don't need another one. We packed up the trucks and headed home. I was looking for "Smokey" as I drove up the dirt road. There are houses just a short way up from the dead end. I thought hopefully that she would find a home at one of the houses on the road.

Norma [Norma is Owen's wife] puts our cat Smokey out each morning on his rope in the front yard. The next morning was a rainy Monday. Norma called to me that Smokey was hissing at a small gray kitten in the front yard. I immediately thought "it can't be"; it was.

"Smokey" from the reservoir had crawled into the underside of my truck and stowed away. This kitten rode for approximately 40 miles under my truck as I drove down route 2. Needless to say; "Smokey" was brought into the house and placed in a cat carrier cage.

I thought about bringing her to the Sterling animal shelter. I slept on it for the night. When I woke the next morning I informed the family that we had a new member of the family. Her name is Grace; for only by the grace of God is she in our lives. I have never thought of myself as a cat person. I do now. When I go to bed at night Grace comes along and sleeps by my feet.

It is a remarkable story; one that I share with all who meet Grace.

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Isn't that great? Route 2 is a pretty major road that runs across Massachusetts - not a ton of traffic out in this area, but everybody moves right along at 65+ m.p.h. That cat really was meant to belong to Owen, I think!

Wow, I'm pretty lame, this is the only picture I found that included a shot of Owen (apart from our wedding photos, but those aren't in electronic form...) That's him, in the grey sweater in the middle of the doorway, facing away from the camera, talking to two of his children. Norma is the lovely lady in the purple shirt sitting in front of him. That's my oldest brother, Mark, in the plaid shirt on the left.

This is from Christmas at my Mum's (she's in the front of the picture, sitting, in the red sweater, in profile) house several years ago - it's always a complete madhouse, with over 20 people packed into not a lot of space (I have four older brothers, 6 nieces, three nephews, a great-niece and two great-nephews [with more in the works, lol, my oldest nieces are closer in age to me than most of my brothers, I was a real tail-ender], it's a big family when we all get together and spouses/significant others all come along...).

I'm going to have to do a better job of taking pictures of everybody next time we're all together!