This preteen island feline rocks with surf-and-turf and the ‘Lollipop’ tune

THE MARKETING PEOPLE saw me coming. Today is Galley Cat’s birthday, so I bought a big packet of BIRTHDAY beef-and-lobster flavored kitty treats.

That’s how the package is labeled, with “birthday” in all caps, along with graphics of party balloons, confetti, and a rather crazed birthday-hat wearing cat opening a beribboned gift box from which a frantic lobster and a pop-eyed steer are madly trying to escape. Surf-and-turf, wrapped and ready to munch and crunch.

The escape motive is my reading of the situation, presuming that the crustacean and the cow are properly reading the context.

On normal days, Galley gets three bite-sized cat treats every time she comes in from outdoors. They aren’t usually BIRTHDAY cat treats, but made by the same manufacturer, with a wide variety of flavors, most of which have an ingredient list prominently featuring the words “by-product,” “Ferrous Sulfate” and “dried cheese.” Basically, they’re Cheetos for cats, but without the orange powder that can be so pesky on the paw.

My late wife, Barbara, established this treats-when-you-come-inside protocol years ago on the premise that it would encourage our adorable feline to come home instead of taking up residence with a neighbor whose grass might seem greener — or supply of cat treats more reliable.

Galley has always liked this policy. In fact, she likes it so much that she will often go outside and come back inside every five minutes. Thank you, dear spouse.

Like a special promotion at McDonald’s, today is Double Treats Day at the Nuthatch cabin. On this eleventh anniversary of her debut to kittenhood, Galley is getting six of these special BIRTHDAY treats every time she comes inside.

I don’t think she knows what it’s about, but she seems to approve.

On the topic of her natal day: I’ve had a lot of cats in my life, but Galley is the first whose actual birth date I’ve known. Most other cats have either been mysterious strangers who wandered by the Cantwell manse (strays) or adoptees we liberated from chokey (shelter cats) who didn’t come with a pedigree. But Galley came from a newfangled pet adoption center in Woodinville that made sure every adoptee was spayed or neutered, immunized, and came with a birth record.

Galley Cat, whose adoption-center name was Mabel, or Marvis, or something equally unsuitable, came from Ellensburg, we were told. She was born on August 17, 2012. I’ve always imagined her one of a litter of very cute kittens born in a hay-lined box in a warm barn. (The “warm” part is a good bet, being mid-August in Central Washington. If she was actually born in a ditch behind a dive bar, I don’t want to know.) Little did she imagine, I imagine, spending half her life on a sailboat and the rest on a small island cooled by marine breezes.

Besides the extra rations today, we’re just having a small, quiet celebration with a few friends, mostly nuthatches and towhees.

Oh, and instead of the traditional birthday song, at my friend Dave Kern’s suggestion I will sing her theme song. (Doesn’t every pet have a theme song?) Hers goes something like, “Galley Cat, Galley Cat, oh Galley Galley Galley.” It sounds better when you set it to the tune of the Chordettes’ 1950s pop hit “Lollipop, Lollipop.” Click and enjoy.