The Cat

Here’s the cat. She ran away for a few weeks back in September/October. We saw her once during that time. She bolted when she saw us. We left food out. It went untouched. While out looking for her one night, we saw a fox. Another day while hiking in the nearby woods, we saw a coyote. It made us think that there might be too many predators for a timid cat like her to survive out there.

Then one day a few weeks before we were going to be moving, I saw something out of the corner of my eye when I went into the basement. There she was! Skinny. Dirty. She must have found some opening and squirmed into the basement. I suspected it was under the porch.

When we moved, she roamed the new house for the first several nights, howling and whimpering. It must have been a confusing time for her. After a few weeks in the wild, cavorting with God only knows what kinds of derelicts, to then find herself in a strange house the smelled of unknown dogs, excessive marijuana use, and a pestiferous perfume, must have been confusing for the poor kitty.

Now she spends more time around us than she did before she ran away. She’s pesty sometimes. She makes annoying squeaky noses rather than meowing. But she’s part of the family. We’re glad she returned before we moved. If she hadn’t, we would have always wondered how she tasted to that coyote.