Keepers Mascot: Miss Marple

Mascot 80, Miss Marple, was a stray who adopted Jeff and Melissa. As Jeff tells the story: A few years ago, during one of our moves, we loaded our belongings into a beautiful house on Hood Canal, close to the Point No Point Light Station and headquarters of the U.S. Lighthouse Society. The unobstructed, west facing views we enjoyed that first evening of the Olympic Mountain Range in the background and the beautiful blue Hood Canal up close were second to none. It wasn’t until later that evening, when things were quiet, that we thought we heard a rustling and quiet “meow” coming from under the house. Not hearing it again in the coming weeks, we thought nothing of this incident. It was late summer when we moved in, and now it was Thanksgiving. It was an especially cold fall for the Pacific Northwest with record snowfall. It was at this time, when we were away seeing family, that our friends watching our house told us about a cat that was climbing on top of the house looking in at them through the skylight. We never experienced this before, so we assumed that it was a local cat that was let out to wander. By the time we returned it was bitter cold and snow was everywhere, except our front porch where we had an awning and a big see-through glass door. Low and behold, we finally saw our friend looking into our warm home from the freezing porch. It was a huge cat and initially we were intimidated. Was it wild, was it a neighbor’s? All we knew was that there was a giant cat looking in at us each night knowing what we had and wanting it. We could not resist, and the cat was finally given garage privileges (which had heat) along with food. Then we tried to find the owner to no avail, and took the giant cat to the vet. We knew this huge thing was a boy . . . but guess what, she is a girl! A big, beautiful, one-year old girl who managed to find us and work her way into our family. Based on the vet’s estimation of her age, we believe she moved in under our house at the same time we moved in – as an adolescent kitten. If we only knew . . . but it took the extreme winter to encourage her to communicate with us. She is extremely shy – street smart really . . . a survivor. We named her Miss Marple, and over time she has proven to be one of the sweetest things we have ever met. She is one of those unique spirits that is able to grab on to your heart strings and not let go. The image of her in the covers, presented with this article, is about as exposed as she likes to be. Never, ever wanting to go back outside, Miss Marple spends her day warm and snug, playing a little and mostly sleeping. Most don’t even know she is there – and we were always happy to keep her as our perfect feline secret . . . but now you know!