Why do I come back? Let me tell you about a cat

From Misc. Student Blog Photos

On the first day of class, Larry asked me. Why do I come back to the workshop, for the fourth year (third as a counselor) in a row?

Well, let me tell you a story. Two years ago I was a counselor at the CSPA workshop. It was my first year as a counselor and I was excited to share my joys of the workshop with the students who were experiencing the same thing I had experienced a year before. Yet that second day, I was exposed to something I had not experienced as a student. Something that, to this day, many people do not even know exists: the Cal Poly SLO feral cat shelter.

You see, every year  CSPA photography instructor Chris Carlson sends students to various locations around campus to take photos: the Cal Poly farm, the daycare, etc. But that day, Chris asked me to take students to the cat shelter. I wasn’t angry about this request, but I wasn’t exactly eager. You see, while I love animals, my idea of a fun time isn’t bathing in the pungent aroma of a room filled with 80 wild cats.

But that was before I met Rex.

You see, even the first time I met Rex, I knew I had seen him before. He is the kind of animal that exhibits characteristics so alive, so real that it’s almost human. And that was when I realized. This cat didn’t resemble someone or remind me of someone. This cat WAS Clint Eastwood.

I know, I must be kidding right? Nope, I’m talking straight-up, Grand Torino Clint Eastwood.

This cat didn’t walk, it strutted. It prowled. It walked around with a scowl so sour you would swear that life gave him lemons, and darn it, he ate them. Basically, this was a mean cat. Not exactly a cat that you’d want at your little sister’s six-year-old birthday party. Yet something about that cat made it all worth it. That trip to the cat shelter made my week. Seeing that cat, so lifelike and human and Grand Torino-like was the reason that, in my second  year as a counselor, when Chris asked me to return to the cat shelter I leaped for joy (not literally). That’s right, I was excited to go back to the cat shelter and see Rex owning the place, the king of the cats.

So it was no surprise that when I came back this year as a counselor I was as excited as ever about seeing the meanest-looking cat to ever walk the streets of San Luis Obispo. But when I showed up at the cat shelter, leading a fresh batch of students through the door, I looked around eagerly for Rex. I didn’t see him. I even asked the shelter’s volunteer that day, Jack, about Rex’s wherabouts hoping to see Clint Eastwood strutting around the corner, on the prowl again. But Jack just looked at me.

“Rex? he asked. “Oh yes. He got adopted.”

Adopted? I was shocked. How, and who, would have in their right mind willingly adopted the cat that looked like Clint Eastwood’s evil cousin? I thought that Rex was destined to live at the cat shelter forever (however many cat years that is).

If you had told me two years ago that Rex would one day get picked up by a loving family and end up in a home that would call his own, I would have laughed. But then I thought about when I first showed up at CSPA. If you had told me at the beginning of those two weeks that I would be cranking out stories (easily) in 45 minutes and writing ledes in mere minutes I would have laughed at that too.

You see, I felt that dealing with the stresses of journalism was just as hopeless a cause as Rex getting adopted. But there was always hope for me, and every student that completes CSPA. And that’s the magic of it. In fact getting used to deadlines, on-the-spot writing, and unexpected news conferences was, like Rex’s adoption, was only a matter of time.

That’s what CSPA is about. It’s about accomplishing more than you ever thought you could in the span of two weeks. It’s about the cat that you thought was the meanest thing that ever lived, suddenly becoming someone’s favorite pet.

That, Larry, is why I come back to CSPA.

Tags: cat shelter, CSPA, Gran Torino, Hanlon, Rex