kitty

tonight my neighbor came to ask where "miss" kitty had been for so long. i had to regretfully inform her that miss kitty is no longer with us. our neighbor sandy is an animal lover like me....when she came over tonight, ruby actually laid down at her feet and sat there. have you any idea how amazing it is for ruby to be still?

anyway, this post is for kitty.

last thursday made three weeks and two days since kitty had been missing. she's done this before but has always come back home. i suppose i was still holding out hope that she would come back. now, kitty was not nice. actually, as my mom frequently called her, she was a b*tch. but i liked her and i don't even like cats very much. she kept to herself, didn't complain, didn't ask to be rubbed on all the time and oddly enough, she loved drew. she wouldn't let anyone else touch her....tim was the only one and he would get maybe two good strokes down her back and she would turn around and attack him -- literally drawing blood. however, she must have sensed she would meet her demise had she scratched drew so she cautiously sat through his "petting" that inadvertently turned into heavier petting, then smacking and tail pulling.

when marie and i were running last thursday, we were on mile 6 when i noticed something laying in the grass by the road. i looked and yelled to her, "hey, i think that's my cat!" my friend shannon really got a kick out of this part of the story because i didn't stop running. when they asked me if i stopped i felt a little guilty but, it would have messed up my running time. luckily i was able to get another look on my next two trips by and was 99% positive it was her.
the only thing i could think of was that she had been out one night when it turned cold so she got up in my car to stay warm. the next morning she must have ridden in the undercarriage of the car and jumped out when i got to school. this is a long trip and i'm surprised she made it that far but that scenario has happened to me before.
i made tim go back by school yesterday on our way to beattyville to check and see if it really was her. we determined it most likely was and on our way home we used bright yellow dollar store bags and a coffee pot box mamaw supplied us with and got her into the box to take home. a few people drove by and i was hoping they wouldn't be parents/students of mine so i wouldn't have to explain what tim and i were doing when i got to school this morning. two adults standing in the pouring rain with a coffee pot box, dollar store bags as makeshift gloves, the back hatch of the highlander up and a screaming baby....what a picture.

we did get kitty home, wrapped her in her uk blanket and buried her down by the willow tree. i have a real soft spot for animals as most of you know, and i could not leave her on the side of the road like a bloated possum.

so, here's to kitty. i hoped she enjoyed her short 3 years in our home. i hope she enjoyed the hundreds of moles she laid on the doorstep; the baby birds she stole out of the wren's nest last year; the times she snuck in and laid on my bed, or the couch, or the recliner. i hope she enjoyed not getting banished when i found her asleep in drew's car seat once last year and i hope she enjoyed the warm place to lay, the food she was always fed and a dog that really adored her. she will be missed. rip, kitty cat, rip.