This is a story I think especially Jennifer will enjoy, or it will make her worry. Or a little bit of both.
For about three minutes I had a cat.
I had been hearing loud cat meowls for quite some time, but since the boyfriend and my cousin are musically active in the boyfriend's room and I was hearing music and our neighbor actually has a cat and the walls here are pretty thin I didn't think a lot about it.
When the meowls wouldn't stop I opened our apartment door and the second it was opened a cat ran it. That was so not what I expected would happen. It was a red cat with a white collar and judging from her weight she had owners who really cared about her. Also, although she wasn't exactly thrilled to see me she wouldn't bite or scratch me if I came. She walked through the apartment confused and meowled. It broke my heart.
Now, what the hell was I supposed to do?
Now one of the first things I thought was 'Wow, I have a cat. Can I keep it?' This comes naturally for me. I've been dog- and catless for too long.
The next thing I thought was 'What am I doing now?'
Since I'm a pretty clever girl I tried to have a look at her collar (not the white furry one, the brown leather thing). I hoped that the owner had been smart enough to attach a little address thing to it. He hadn't.
The thing is there are a lot of cats here. I swear I have seen that very cat two days ago running through the gardens. So I developed a plan. It was clear that the cat couldn't stay as much as would have loved it. The plan was to take the cat and bring it to the only people I could think of that might know who it belonged to. The original plan was to do so without the cat, but kitty didn't think so. Before I knew it she was out in hallway again and I 'decided' to take her with me.
Now, I have to say that I don't know these people I planned to ask. I have only seen them from our balcony so at best I can say that I have a vague idea where they live. But I also thought that even if they weren't there or couldn't tell me who that cat belonged to, I could let the cat go in their garden, since I have seen her there before, so she should know her way around from there.
She would let me carry her, so I thought that would be a good sign. It was until we came to the next corner where she struggled and I couldn't hold her any longer. She ran away and vanished behind a parked car. I stayed for quite a while and tried to make her come to me or at least see where she was, but I wasn't lucky.
I still tried to find the people I had planned to ask and I did eventually find the entrance to their house, but they weren't home.
Now the one thing is that I'm still a little worried because I don't know anything about that cat and where she came from, so I can't be sure whether she is okay now. On the other hand I know that cats usually find their way around and it's not like she ran away and vanished far from where I wanted bring her anyway. So despite my worries I am pretty sure she'll be okay.
Also I would like to say something to all cat owner's: If you can, please attach one of those little thingies for your address to your cat's collar. Even if you don't think you need it, because your cat knows its way around or you're used to your cat not always coming home during the night, there are people like me who do actually care. We worry. And we don't know where you live. So we might go to troubles. Just because of you.
So, you know, next time... I'm keeping the cat.
