Bye, Bye, Kitty

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It is in the nature of cats to do a certain amount of unescorted roaming. ~Adlai Stevenson, former Governor of Illinois, and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations

This was my neighbor’s cat (was being the operative word).

I didn’t know its name. Never petted it. Never fed it or played with it.

Truth be told, I’m not a “cat person,” and Monkey hates cats, so neither of us had much use for it.

Still, it was a pretty cat … if you like cats, I mean. And I’m sure its owners enjoyed having it around.

But that, it seems to me, wasn’t enough.

They might have enjoyed having Kitty around, but they failed to take proper care of him.

Or her.

Kitty, you see, was a “free spirit.” It wandered the neighborhood doing cat-things. Chasing birds. Tormenting bunnies. Sneaking around people’s shrubbery. Taunting dogs properly fenced in their own yards.

And one day, Kitty disappeared.

The neighbors hollered out their front door for days. They got in their car and drove around … slowly. They asked every one of us if we’d seen Kitty.

Nobody had.

Kitty was gone.

Did a hawk swoop down and grab him? Did he find another home with fancier food and treats? Did he simply get bored and feel the need to see the world on his terms?

Who knows.

I feel sorry for anybody who loses a beloved pet. I do. Yet I find it hard to wrap my head around anybody truly loving a pet and neglecting proper care of that pet.

Yes, I know, cats come and go at will. But they still need to have food and water, still need vet care, still need to be spayed or neutered, still need a sunny spot where they can snooze and feel safe.

And it makes me sad that Kitty no longer has any of that stuff (assuming he/she had it previously, that is).

Note: Kitty disappeared long before Halloween, so don’t fret over a wicked person grabbing him/her and conducting Satanic rites because he’s a black cat. And, while black cats have a world of superstitions surrounding them, my late grandma used to claim that having a black cat around was good luck.

27 thoughts on “Bye, Bye, Kitty”

  1. Debbie, how sad. As you know, I “am” a cat person. However, whenever I’ve had them as pets, they were “indoor” cats. As you said, they need proper care – food, water, vet care, etc. Also, fleas are a big issue with cats, especially when I lived in Florida, which is why I kept them inside. As far as I can tell, cats don’t mind being solely indoors.

    Now that I live in a city, I will sometimes see a cat (or two) roaming the streets, which really worries me because of all the traffic in the streets.

    I sure hope the cat you spoke of found a comfort and care somewhere.

    Have a great rest of your week, my friend! X

    P.S. We are finally getting the weather I like. Cold. *doing the happy dance*

    • Ron, I knew this post would tug at your heartstrings! Isn’t it sad? I wish I knew what happened to Kitty (well, on second thought, maybe it’s just as well that I don’t!)

      I hadn’t thought about fleas being problematic for cats, but now that you mention it, I can see where they would be. Cats aren’t known for liking baths much, and I can only imagine how irritating it must be, having something crawling on you!

      I see you’re getting our rain today. Hang in there because more cold will follow that! xx

  2. It’s such a sad story your neighbor’s cat was a part of.

    Well, I’m a cat person even though I haven’t had one for decades. It used to be that cats were useful keeping rodents in check in the barns on family farms. When I was a girl we always had a cat or two who roamed free in the woods around our house, as did the dog. My mother had a bird feeder, too, and it never seemed to be a problem. But my grandmother lived in a small town setting and regularly complained about roaming cats killing her birds. When I got married and had kids I became familiar with the keep your cats inside philosophy. I have such mixed feelings about this as I understand both sides. I tend to have a “born free” mindset and think it’s cruel to keep a cat cooped up in the house. (I think they get cabin fever, too!) And I hate the having to clean litter pans! On the other hand, cats face many dangers and live shorter lives outside in suburban neighborhoods, getting hit by cars, etc. Sadly, my way of resolving my ambivalence is to not have a cat at all. 😦

    • Barbara, I think you’ve chosen a good solution to your dilemma! I guess I’m just enough of a “city girl” that I think pets should be indoors. Oh, I know people keep horses and chickens and rabbits and all sorts of critters as pets, but they’re likely fenced in. Cats, with their tendency to roam, are subject to all sorts of problems, and just thinking about poor Kitty here makes me sad.

    • YES!!! Illinois has a plentiful coyote population. I’d hate to think Kitty became somebody’s dinner. We also have lots of country roads, with heavy farm equipment, semi trucks, and speeding youngsters out to see how fast they can go. Not the sort of place for a loose pet.

  4. I know what it’s like to have a pet just “disappear”, since that’s what Sam did last year. And we buried one of our dogs this morning, so death is on my brain. (but that’s life)

    It was a beautiful cat. One of my grandkitties is black, so I’m a little partial.

    • Oh, Kelly, I’m so sorry. Losing your dog must have been awful, regardless of whether it was old and sick or not. I cried for a full year after Dallas died (and it was a long time before I warmed up — at least sort of! — to Monkey). Our pets really wrap their paws around our hearts, and it’s so devastating to lose them. Hugs, okay?

        • I’m going to remind myself to grab a Kleenex before I start reading it! I’m sure it will bring back all my emotions over losing Dallas (but it’s good you can write about it — helps process things, you know).

  5. Our cats were indoor animals and were very happy dominating the interior. Letting a cat run wild is not the way to properly take care of it. I’m going to hope kitty found a more deserving place to live.

  6. I’m sad too. We had, a couple summers ago, a cat that showed up in our yard. Startled the heck out of me when I turned into the driveway one afternoon while walking Katie and there was a cat sitting near the porch. Katie didn’t care, she was old by then, she might not have even seen it. But it was still there when I left to go do something hours later. And it was there the next day, sitting in our yard out by the road watching traffic go by. So I posted in a neighborhood group if anyone knew this cat. I figured it had been dumped. It was really friendly. Turns out it belonged to a neighbor about 6 houses up on our street. She asked us not to lock him into our house or take him to the humane society because her kids loved him, but he wouldn’t be an inside cat. His name was Miggi. So, since he was friendly I called him and he came and I walked him up the street, him following me, to his house where I turned him over to his dad (who I found out later is a somewhat famous punk rock star…who knew) and left. The rest of the summer Miggi would sho up once in awhile and I’d walk him back home. Then we never saw him again and it’s been a couple years. I feel sad for him too. He was a great cat. Just liked to eat our backyard birds.

    • When I lived in Texas, I had a gray and white cat show up on our front porch. He didn’t seem to want to be friends and wouldn’t let me get near him, but he was a beauty. I got some cat food and water and a cardboard box for him, so he hung around for quite a while before disappearing. I think that’s why I like dogs so much — they, at least, seem appreciative of the efforts you go through to make their lives comfy. Cats use you, then go away! I’m glad you gave Miggi a bit of kindness — and I know Katie didn’t suffer any pangs of jealousy!

  7. I’m afraid most cats need to roam free or they are miserable. Some breeds are specially bred to be housecats, but ordinary mogs, and this one looks like a beautiful ordinary mog to me, like to do their own thing. I lost a cat in similar circumstances, and assume he was either killed by a car or a fox. On the other hand, the same cat, years earlier, went missing for six weeks and then came home. He would have hated to be cooped up like a prisoner – it was his choice to roam and live a cat life.

    • Perhaps that’s why I’d be a terrible cat-parent, FF — I’d never be comfortable letting a pet run free! I’d worry myself sick over whatever might befall it, whether it was eating right, staying safe, and so on. And then when it finally showed up again, I’d worry all over about it bringing me fleas, diseases, etc. By the way, I’ve never heard of a “mog” before, so I’m off to look it up!

  8. Debbie as you know I’m 100% a dog person. When I lived in Denver, CO there was a cat that was hanging out at my front door. I had a miniature schnauzer at that time. I would come home from work and it would just be sitting waiting there at my front door. I didn’t feed it or pay much wonder about it. But after a few days, I noticed that it did have a collar. So I opened my door and it came inside my home. I gave it some water and dog food. It let me look at the collar and I saw the owner’s phone number. I called and the owner was so happy that I found her cat! I lived in a 300+ condo complex and all the units looked identical. The cat was lost thinking it was sitting on it’s own porch. It belonged to one of my neighbors in our complex. She came and picked up her beloved pet and was so thankful.

    This was early 2000 in the day that people actually answered their phones and spoke to people who called!

    A few days later, I found a very cute coffee cup with a sweet thank you note from the cat’s mama how grateful she was that her cat was found and that I was kind to rescue it for her.

    I suppose that we will never the fate of Kitty though. I hope her mama’s heart will heal soon.

    • What a great story! I’m glad that “lost” cat had a collar and tag, that it let you call its owner, and that its grateful owner rewarded you for your kindness, TD!

      I think it’s probably easier for somebody like me to have a dog. Generally, they’re a tad more compliant than a cat. What is it they say? Dogs have owners, while cats have staff. Yes, kitties have a way of surveying their domain with a touch of disdain, don’t they?!

  9. Cats get a bad reputation. They’re much more affectionate — and even trainable — than many people realize. That said, they also wreak havoc on birds (and the occasional lizard) and there are good reasons to keep them indoors. Farm cats keeping mice and rats out of the barn are one thing; cats stalking the bird feeders quite another. Dixie was an indoor cat, and I trained her to stay inside even when the doors were open. She had a chair next to a window where she could watch the bird feeders, and it was clear she had ‘instincts,’ but she seemed happy enough.

    I did once have a stray who finally disappeared. My assumption was that it found a home in another apartment; if I’d not had Dixie, I would have taken her in. But, coyotes are the culprits here when it comes to feral cat disapperance. The cat population grows, the coyotes show up, and in time there aren’t any more cats. So it goes!

    • Dixie certainly led the princess life with you, Linda! I imagine being an indoor cat supplied her with all the attention she needed — as well as food on schedule, playtime, and a visit to the vet when she was under the weather.

      I realize coyotes have to eat, too, but it saddens me to think of them nabbing somebody’s pet cat. I can only hope this Kitty didn’t suffer or that he/she will eventually turn up. Maybe bedraggled, but none the worse for the experience.

    • I have a hard time being optimistic over the outcome here, Robin. It seems to me that Kitty has been sacrificed to Nature (and coyotes). I do feel sorry for the people who tried to own him though.

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