Nine Lives

"The cats are in my courtyard!"

This is the text message we got two weeks ago from my mom. Our first thought is, um, what cats?

About three months ago, due to my dad moving, we had to give our 14 year old cats to a no-kill shelter. But my mom was texting us blurry pictures, swearing up and down that the cats had made the trip across town to her work. Our first thought was that someone had adopted them and they had run away. Or that this person had released them thinking that them living on the streets was somehow safer than a no-kill shelter.

We contact the shelter, leave 20 million messages, never receive a call back.

My husband drives down there and confronts them about it. They tell us that both cats have passed. One was just too old (and really really obese) and the other just died of shock (she was always a weird cat). They gave us dates and causes and all the specific details. We pass this information on to my mom who proceeds to tell us that the shelter is lying. The cats ar enot dead, they are in here courtyard....

I finally get a day off ( after working 8 days in a row!!! ) and I go to my mom's job. If it is my cat, she'll come to me. I mean, the cat calls me "Momma", she'll recognize me. I'm not leaving until I spot a cat. I either want to have photographic proof that it's not my cat or I want to bang on the shelters doors screaming foul.

I walked around for over an hour trying to find a hidey-hole or glimpse a ball of fur that may be mine. Nothing. I found two other random cats, but clearly neither was familiar.

I crouch down on the stairwell, with my camera ready and I wait semi-patiently.

Suddenly there she is! I snap a couple of zoom shots and it's so clear... it's so not my cat.

I showed my mom and the fun is all over now. No more freak outs over walking dead cats (like from "Madhouse") or runaways scavaging for food. Just two random kind of (but not really) similar cats.

Yeah, it stinks that my JB passed away and I am going to miss her so much, but she outlived her sister by almost a year and she was so fat. I know she lived a good life and I know she was happy so I have promised myself that I wouldn't grieve too much for her.

And the other cat, KK, can just rot....