Reply to comment

In one of the fantastically interliked and truely bizarre stories told by storyteller Thomas Hulbert, Lonnie the Huckster, who sold Nate a bent metal kettle sculpted into the form of a sleigh with a ball-preen hammer and which Nate subsequently used in a summer 'escapade' (on a skate board) to make a dash to California pulled by 16 squirrles wearning immitation German squirrel harnesses, also sold by Lonnine, had a cat named Oboe.

Oboe was one of the many animals in the story, but the only cat. He was related by interracial marriage to the dogs Venimous and Neuder both of which play much larger roles in the story. Oboe is not terribly loyal to Lonnie the Huckster, but he is change of a side business either training the squirrels (also sold by Lonnie to Nate) or rounding them up for a local park or forest. They split the profits. It is unclear if Oboe talks, but it is implied that he does as he somehow negotiaties with Lonnie, his owner / partner.

Oboe appears in another part of the story as the 'magic cat' in the possesion of Uncle James, the toothless Chinaman with the one tooth in his 'hoary maw'. Uncle James uses Oboe as a hat and keeps things tucked inside him.

Given all the buying, selling and trading that are such a part of the stories Mr Hulbert tells, the assumption is that Uncle James bought or traded Lonnie the Huckster for Oboe who may have already been stuffed if we can assume Lonnie's penchant for turning one thing into another also extended to living things. Uncle James is one of the few kind figures in the stories, so it is unlikely that he has done this to Oboe, who he seems to have genuine fondness for.

If you ever get a change to hear Mr Hulberts incredibly funny and seemingly endless psychadelic folk tales full of loops and twisted interconnections between various parts of Americana and other ethnic and animal lore, be sure to ask him about Oboe the cat.