An former neighbor passed along this sad image:
Many years ago, I was living in East Austin, in a neighborhood that wasn’t “safe” or even “hip,” at least, at that time it couldn’t be described by either of those words. What a few year’s difference can make. I had a client who had ran an amateur animal rescue farm, outside of Austin. One time, she called, asked if I could help place some kittens, as she no longer had any room in her inn. My neighbor was looking for another cat to supplement his already weird one. Not that I have lot of room to move on that concept, but whatever.
“El Guapo” was mostly black, with some faint white streaking on his chest. He was an odd one. I don’t recall much of him as an adult cat as the neighbor went onto post-doc work elsewhere. Astrophysics or something – yeah, the guy really is a rocket scientist. Which has nothing to do with the cat.
Due to its hazardous birth and abandonment issues, the cat had a few early health problems. “The ants had gotten to his ears and one eye,” was what I was told. He did have a permanently cocked ear, bent over whereas most cats have both ears up. And one eye was a different size. Didn’t matter.
The rest of the details are lost.