Deja vu

I've told this story before....so now this is a real case of deja vu. Please bear with me while I tell it again, with a twist: different day...different cat.

I'm a dog person. I keep telling them that...the cats I mean..... but it doesn't seem to make any difference. They all love to hang around my bed and breakfast. No, it's not because I feed them, cause I don't. And it's not because I pet them or even say "Here kitty, kitty", cause I don't. And no matter how hard I try I cannot convince them that I really prefer dogs, they just don't get it! either they don't listen or they don't believe me.

I might as well admit to you right up front. that I really love all animals. And cats are so cute, expecially when they're kittens and especially if they're Tabbies. They have the cutest faces and do the cutest things. My daughter has four and when I go to visit her, they're all over me; rubbing up against me, purring loudly while sitting on my shoulders, and licking my face when they get a chance.

I can't figure it out....

After the incident over a year ago I think the word got around among the felines in the neighborhood that the lady at the bed and breakfast is not to be trusted any more.... not after she took Maxine's offspring to the Humane Society. They all seemed to leave me alone for a while. In fact, I didn't see hide nor hair of a cat for months.

Anyhow, back to my story: Around two or three months ago, I started noticing a small grey and white cat stretched out around the front of my B&B. Sometimes she would be stationed in the shade under one of the Holly bushes and sometimes she would be wrapped around the trunk of my Magnolia tree.

She tried to talk to me a few times, but I just told her to go away....I was so afraid she would bring all her friends to hang out at the B&B, hoping for a hand out. This would definitely put off some of my paying guests. You'ld be surprised at the people who don't like or are allergic to cats. I wouldn't let myself notice how cute she was and what a soft, gentle, little meow she had.

Eventually she started taking naps on my stairs....one day it was the bottom step, then a couple steps higher and finally I walked out one afternoon to find her up on the small porch relaxing on the warm, smooth lapis blue stones of my entrance way. At that moment, one of my guests arrived with two huge Great Danes. Surely, I thought, she'll high tail it for home, if she has a home. But, no I was wrong. Not only did she remain prone in the afternoon sun, but she scared the dogs so that my guest had to take them around to the side door.

When she first started hanging around, she had a pink collar on with a phone number on it. We tried to call the owners but the phone had been disconnected. We figured they moved and just left her here. After a few more weeks, my housekeeper noticed that she was pregnant. Here she was without a home, pregnant and lying outside in the grueling hot sun. It's been in the 90s for weeks here. It was very upsetting for me, because I couldn't bring her in the house. But at least I knew she was eating and drinking water at another neighbor's house. I frequently saw here wandering around the neighborhood. She was quiet, gentle and very friendly, so everyone in the neightbood liked her.

We thought someone would take her in or to the Humane Society. I didn't want to do that because I'm sure the last kittens I took their were euthanized. Eventually we found an agency that did not euthanize and decided to take her there, so she could have her kittens there. But that was four days and she no longer comes to our house. We have looked around the neighborhood and watched for her all week, but she never appeared again. I pray that she is all right, Every time I think of her, the mental picture of those four little kittens the other cat brought to my chaise lounge on my back deck almost two years ago, so that they would be out of danger, flashes before me and my stomach and heart groan with anxiety and regret.

First cat story: She Was An Outdoor Cat