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On a warm summer day in 1999, my husband, Matt, and I went on a kayaking trip on the Cape Fear River with friends. We started by unloading our kayaks at the upstream put-in point. Then Matt left with our friends Lyndela and Barry to put a car at the downstream pull out point. I stayed behind with Lyndela's son, and the kayaks. We were skipping rocks and talking about animals we had seen in the wild, when we heard a very loud meow. After a few minutes a pickup truck left the area where we heard the loud meow. So we decided I should go investigate while he watched the kayaks. I went up the dirt path and saw nothing. I turned around to leave and an adorable blue-gray kitten jumped out of the bushes and begged to be pet. I looked around to see where the kitten could have come from. We were in the middle of nowhere, no houses to be seen.

The poor kitty was covered in dirt and his belly was bloated, a sign of worms. He also did not have a collar. I decided that the kitten was probably abandoned. So we decided to take him. But Where? We only had cars and kayaks. It was too hot to leave him in a car. And we could not leave him to roam free, he could get lost. So when the rest of the group returned, we all decided to take him down the river with us. So everyone took off their jackets to make a bed for him in the foot of my kayak, a green LOON. We placed him in the kayak and I pushed off. The kitten nervously peaked out and eyed the water with fear. Then he decided that the human contact was worth it and curled up on my lap.

During the trip we went through quite a few spots of rapids. Each time the kitten sat up, watched nervously, then curled up on the jackets and shirts deep inside the kayak. He was a very brave kitty. We came to the most difficult rapid on the trip, the person who went before me flipped over. I decided that I could not take the kitty through the rapid. Just then, two canoers appeared on the rocks by the rapid. It was perfect timing. I called to them and asked for their help.

One of the canoers said "Yes, this is a tough rapid, would you like help out of the river?"

I responded "No! But please could you hold my kitten?"

They were quite surprised, as I pulled the kitty out of his hiding place. They agreed to help.

I went through the rapids in one piece and they handed me the kitty on the other side. The kitty was not too thrilled to be back in the boat after dry land. He could not decide where to sit and kept sitting on the edge of the kayak. I had to keep bringing him back inside the kayak. I stopped and held the kitty tight to calm him. He liked that a lot and decided being up high was very good. So he climbed on my head and life vest. At first I was not happy about it at all. Then I realized he was going to stay put curled around my neck and life vest. So we went down the last mile of the river with the kitty on my neck! We passed a group of guys fishing and they looked at each person in our group as we came down, then stared at me with the mewing cat on my head. I think they thought I was crazy!

Well we finally made it and the next adventure was an hour car ride home. My other two cats hate the car and foam at the mouth, barf, you name it. But, this kitty had seen it all. He just curled up in my lap and slept. When we arrived home we gave him a box with a nice blanket inside, but all he wanted was to sleep on Matt's river shoes. We have decided to call him "Loon" after the kayak he had his great adventure in.

Loon's first picture.