Many "F" words (not necessarily those from street vernacular) confront one during the passage known as living. Ironically, and it truly is an irony, all those words have a connection and that connection is not the expected and predictable union. Interested? Follow my rambling thoughts for a while.
Lets start with felines. My birth sign is Leo, the lion(ess). If you are astrologically interested or inclined, feel free to research the sign. It is easily accessible, thanks to the internet...but that really doesn't have much to do with my story. So, here goes.
It was a chilly, but not cold, and rainy March night. As a family. we had dealt with a devastating house fire, the death of Bradley, my autistic son, as a result of that fire; living for two and a half weeks in two hotel suites (three adult sons and two parents) and on that day...we had moved into a three bedroom rental house. Thanks to our homeowner's insurance and a long time neighbor (a real estate agent) we were finally under one roof. C.J. was in the master bedroom unpacking whatever clothes we had managed to replace and our three sons were in various spaces...trying to organize their possessions (fourth son was away in college). The storm outside increased in strength...as proved by the increased sound from the rain hitting the metal awnings over the windows and the back patio cover.
C.J. yelled.....I was to come quickly..he saw a raccoon just outside the window! I remember thinking...you have got to be kidding....I've never seen a raccoon in a window...or anywhere off the ground..unless he was up a tree. I went to look. Sitting on the outside window ledge was a fairly large furry gray animal. "No," I told him. "that's no raccoon. Looks like a cat to me."
He was sure it was a bobcat then....I assured him that whatever it was..it was a domestic cat. Grumbling that he had never seen a cat that big...he was sure I was wrong...so he called the three sons in to look. The resulting consensus......it was a cat. He closed the window and the curtains...still grumbling.
Next day....I looked across the street and saw this huge gray cat sitting on the curb grooming its fur. As the week progressed...I talked with a couple of the neighbors and found out that the street had an uusually large number of cats who were thrown out, kicked out, dumped, and thrown away by their previous "owners." The huge gray was a "dumpee" who had appeared a few weeks before. Sincce we had lost our cats as a result of the fire (one died, the tom cat ran away) I was not pleased. Then I went down the hill to the dollar store....we needed canned dog food for our elderly lab mix (who managed to escape the fire along with her wild son) so, before I left the store..I bought some canned cat food.
The next night...I opened a can of food and left it on the porch for the stray gray. Though I never saw her eating , the can was empty next morning. By the next weekend...she would come out of whereever she hid at night....when she saw me come out of the house with her food. She wouldn''t come too close...but she seemed to understand that she would find food and eventually water...on the corner of the porch.
March is a funny month...especially weather wise. A cold snap came along and one evening when I came from work and parked in the driveway...the gray was sitting on the corner of the porch near where ahe was fed...looking at me...just looking. That evening..I looked back and said to her, "Aren't you tired of being out in the cold?" I opened the door, "Come on in this house!" She looked at me as if she understood, stood up and regally walked in ahead of me. Once inside, she flew through the house and hid under the futon where my older son slept.
From then on, she would ask to be let out early in the day (with the lab), We wondered where she went...but she wss always back at night. Then one day...C.J. saw her walking along the sidewalk. He got in his car and drove slowly down the street...shadowing the gray. She walked the half mile to the end of the street (which deadended into a corn field), looked around carefully, then slowly and sadly walked back to the rental house. It was obvious,,,she was looking for her people...but she never found them. Every night (for months) she would come back to us to be fed, sheltered, and by that time loved.
When we moved from that rental....the boys wrapped her securely in a towel and got in the car with her and when they got to our new residence...she was presented with her food dish, her water bowl and her own litter box. At that point...she finally realized that whereever we lived, she lived, and we were her people.
