Last night my son Will came by for dinner which is always a delight for this mother. ( I never thought I be saying "Why don't you call your mother and let her know everything you've been up to, daily ! " ) I was walking him out to the car when we spotted a small orange and white cat on our front lawn. She was young, not quite a kitten anymore and was meowing with such a distressful tone. We noticed she had a collar with a bell on it. So she was someones cat! I decided to approach her and see if she would come to me. She seemed interested and scared at the same time. She cautiously walked over to me and then lashed out with her claws. "I'll pick her up Mom!" volunteered Will. I recommended him to go get work gloves from the garage and the old cat carrier. In the meanwhile I tried to get closer to her to see if I could calm her. "Here little kitty. Don't be afraid" With that she lunged at me and left a 3 inch scratch on my leg! Crazy cat! Then she took off to my neighbors lawn across the street to the house on the corner. She ran up the steps of the old Victorian house and lied down calmly on the wrap around porch. So I with the carrier and Will with his farmer gloves crept up the steps. "She looks pretty comfortable here." said Will. 'Maybe I better knock on the door to make sure it's not their cat." Yeah, and here we were on their property looking a little crazy to boot. A young man answered the door. "Is this your cat, we were trying to catch her and she ran up to your porch." "Yeah that's our cat." he replied uninterested in our rescue efforts. "Ah...Okay thanks." Yeah thanks for the 3 inch gash your cat left on my leg! Why do people let their cats roam the neighborhood any way! Don't they know their pet will live a longer life if it's not crossing the streets and encountering who knows what. Hey at least put a name tag on the collar so we know where to return the remains when it ends up flattened like a pancake by some one's SUV! I know that sounds harsh but that's the reality. I have had cats before and all of them were strictly indoor cats. They all lived long and very happy lives indoors! Oh well I will just mind my business and nurse my wound. Ozzie doesn't know why I got all worked up in the first place. "It's only a dumb cat!" I heard him mutter as he went back to work on nap number five!
Well, I gotta admit that one of our cats does go out. That's because he was living outdoors before he moved in with us and also when he moved in the traffic in and out of our house made it hard to be sure a cat couldn't sneak out. Even Simone sneaks out sometimes and she's a lifelong indoor cat, but she doesn't mean it. She just wants to show she can do it. She lets herself get caught right away.
ReplyDeletewags, Lola