Dakota

26 September 1995 - 5 July 2012

Dakota is an very, very dark gray male cat. Only his eyes and teeth give him away if he is in the shawdows, so it is difficult to get a photo of him that shows him off.

Dakota was born late in September, 1995. On an impulse I decided to go to the Orange County Animal Shelter in Chapel Hill to see the animals available for adoption. I was chatting with one of the workers there and the person mentioned that they had a kitten in the back room that was still too young to be made available for adoption. We went back to take a look at him and instantly knew I had to take him home. I called every subsequent day to check on his status and to get an idea of when he would come up for adoption because I knew that he wouldn't last long once he was placed in the public area. Several days later one of the workers said that he probably weighed enough and would be put up for adoption when the supervisor/vet came in later in the day and weighed him. I popped over there in the early afternoon and inquired about the cat. "Dakota" was his name, and all the workers knew who I was talking about as soon as I said his name. I just happened to be talking with the manager about his weight and he said "Well let's just check it now.". He had finally gained enough weight to adopt. He never made it to the adoption room, which was fine by me! :-) A few days later after he had his final checkup, I picked him up and introduced him to Rusty Spots that evening.

Rusty Spots didn't quite know what to make of this new animal. I think he wanted it to just go away. Dakota made himself busy by exploring the apartment and trying to get close enough to Rusty Spots to get a good sniff.

As it turned out, they haven't become best buddies as I hoped. Dakota is just a bit too agressive for Rusty Spots, though Rusty Spots has a good 8 pounds on Dakota and could set Dakota in his place quite easily.

Rusty Spots died in January 1999 after about 2 months of a downhill slide. Dakota seemed to know what was going on and was craving more and more attention in Rusty Spots' final days and after he had died. Because of this, I decided to get another cat to provide Dakota company while I was away.

February 27th, I stopped into the Durham Animal Shelter and saw a kitten that had arrived an hour earlier. She was too young to adopt, but she was attentive as well as clean. While I was there, playing with her, she took time out to clean herself. I decided that she was the one to take home. I took her home on March 12th. I decided to name her Tabatha.

I was surprised that Dakota immediately took on Rusty Spots' "role" as the senior cat. The main difference is that Dakota is much more tolerant of Tabatha. They regularly chase one another around and play fight in the evenings. They also will clean each other. This is what usually causes the chasing and play fighting.

Dakota was put to sleep on July 5 2012. He was a couple of months shy of 17 years old.