Bat Boy

Several days ago the television news folks did a spot on the ugliest cat. His name is Bat Boy. He is an 8-year-old cat named Ugly Bat Boy -- Uggs for short -- a loveable, genetic mystery that would fit quite nicely into the Star Wars bar scene. "He's my cat. I like him!" insists veterinarian Stephen Bassett of the Exeter Animal Hospital in Stratham. NH. "He's escaped before and kind of frightened some neighbors," the vet confesses. "Because he was running through the yard and they didn't know what he was." Believe it or not, Ugly Bat Boy had a sister that looked just like him, but she died as a kitten, despite Bassett's extraordinary efforts to save her.

Let me tell you, my friends, that there are ugly cats and then there are really ugly cats.

The cats below are beauty pagent winners in comparision to a cat we knew.

His name was Dexter. He came out to gret us as we would go visit friends. Dexter was an outside cat, and very friendly. That was a problem.

When we would arrive at our destination, here would come Dexter, wabbling out of the woods. I always have thought that Dexter really lived in an ancient cemetary somewhere over the bank. Dexter could easily have been a character from a Stephen King novel.

Judy and I think that Dexter was at least 120 years old. He had warts all over the hairless body and we were certain that parasites have ravaged his system for many years. He was so skinny that I could have presented a lecture on skeletonal anatomy of this creature. You could see definite bone structures.

As he slowly approached, Dexter would look up at you with these eyes that actually were so clouded with cataracts that he looked possessed. To make matters worse, there was only one tooth in his head - a fang that jutted out at a 45 degree angle from his left jaw. Man, could ole Dexter drool! Dexter brought drooling to a fine art with copious volumes of saliva trailing behind him. He would rub against our legs marking us with this trailing liquid.

I am certain that Dexter's owners did what they could, but the ravages of old age has taken over this creature.

I never took a photograph of Dexter - I believed that Dexter should not be remembered at this stage of his life. I am certain that he was a cute gray, short-haired kitten in the early years!