Missing Kitty

We lost our cat today. I missed her. (We keep calling it a her, but I still need to take it to the vet to know for sure. Seriously. I even had a friend who is really good with cats take a look, and she couldn't tell. Whatever it is, it is most likely fixed.) I thought about sharing the story here and realized I hadn't shared her story yet. I've mentioned that we have a cat, but never how this came to be.

We, the allergic mama and papa, the severely allergic although she screams if you suggest it four year old - we have a cat. We thought this would never be, could never be, and never became too attached to all the sweet kitties who crossed our path. Somehow, we were waiting for Kitty-Kitty, (Yes, the kids named her.) and Kitty-Kitty was waiting for us.

She was waiting at a rest-stop on I-95. Yes, this beautiful cat was there. She looked healthy, young and thin. She was friendly, cautious and hungry. We fed her. Our dog travels with us on vacation, and she liked dog food. We all felt an attachment. She got in the van easily enough. I did not want her left at the rest stop. We decided to take her with us to the family farm in PA.

We stopped at a WalMart on the way and bought a cat carrier. Moe rides on his bed, but he does not bound between seats and children's laps when children are supposed to be asleep. She did not like the carrier. She cried a bit. She slept. We let her out at the farm. She left through a window for the night. She came back. We took pictures. We put a notice on Richmond's Craig's List in case she escaped from someones car. No response.

Surprise! We have a new cat for the farm. Right? Wrong. The cat was not allowed to stay. We brought her back to Norfolk thinking, "We'll find a good home for her here." We did just that. The deal was this: She had to work as an outside kitty in the city, get along with Moe and not scratch kids in order for her to stay with us. She did!

She stays in our yard. She keeps all other cats out of our yard and from wandering down the street. She comes to the door to be fed. We found a pink lined cat bed and small bowl that someone was throwing out. They are in the loft of the playhouse. She hissed at Moe at first, but now they sniff. She lets Anna pet her. She's caught three rats, two squirrels and three birds. (I don't like the bird part, but am grateful for fewer rats in our house and not so many squirrels eating our garden and being shot [with a BB gun] by our neighbor. Also, she hunts for food, not recreation.) She does not even use the sandbox as a litter box if we forget to put the lid on. She is the perfect cat for us.

I did not see her all day yesterday. I did not see her this morning. I was worried. Maybe someone picked her up. Maybe someone else was keeping her, despite her pretty piano collar. I had the strong feeling last night that she was trapped. I looked in the garage. I called for her. I called Jesse at work. He suggested the van. There she was, asleep on Leah's booster. She must have jumped in when we left the door open Tuesday evening. She was fine. She ate, drank, used the yard and nuzzled Anna's feet. Surprisingly, I could not find a mess or scratch in the van. Now that's a perfect cat.

I'm glad we found each other.

A week ago today...

I experienced a freakish accident. I was walking Moe in the morning. This is something unusual, and will never happen again. I saw our neighbor walking his girls to school with their two dogs, on the other side of the street. I made a foolish decision to cross my corner first, hoping to jog ahead. Note: These dogs are 90 and 70 lb. animals. They walk on a joint leash. Moe weighs 21 lbs. One of them attacked Moe when we first got him last August.
To continue: I did get a good distance between us and the other dogs. I could hear our neighbor yelling at his dogs behind us. Moe could not hear him or the dogs barking. He's completely deaf. He was sniffing a tree. What I did not know was that as our neighbor was ushering his daughters across the intersection, his dogs broke the link that connected them to him. They came up behind me at about 15 mph, one on either side, and I did a Fosbury Flop onto my right buttock. Only I did not land in a pile of foam. I landed on the hard, sandy, dirty ground. Note: Many of these details are from my neighbor, who came down twice to see how I was, to see if I needed a ride to the vet, to apologize profusely. I could not get up. There were three dogs on my legs. Two of them were attacking Moe. I remember saying, "Get your dogs away from mine!" and that my sister said it was okay to kick another dog in Moe's defense. So I tried to kick the dogs. My neighbor arrived. With the force he used to pull his dogs, he fell back. He hollered for me to get my dog away, since he unknowingly took Moe's leash with him. I untangled Moe and got him to sit. He calmed the instant he was separated. It's taken me almost a week to calm.

Moe is fine. His chest and stomach were covered in saliva, which then had sand and grit sticking to it. We gave him a bath. He slept the rest of the day. I am fine now. I have one tiny scratch on my leg with a large bruise. Two days after the fall, the entire right side of my body throbbed. No one but Sarah could touch my shoulder. With heat, soaking, yoga and Riki, my body seems to be healing itself. I still want to get a massage, possibly a chiropractic adjustment. Baby is good. I was concerned all day, but movement started at its usual time - when I lay down to read with Sarah at night. I think my neighbor almost had a heart attack. He was so worried about me. He brought me these later in the afternoon.

Yes, he's very sorry.

And that is what happened last week.

When I get the chance, I want to write about what happened a year ago today. The memories are fonder - our first day in Paris.