Kitty visits in the Night

I fell asleep the other night putting Daniel to bed. (I think this time, unlike many, he actually fell asleep first...)

In any case, I was woken up some time later by Amy, who said "Honey, didn't you hear me calling? I was practically screaming..."

In any case, the red-alert turned out to be a visit from some unknown local cat. Amy's quandary was what we should do about the fact that she - we'll go with she - was lingering by the door and seemed to want to stay with us, and probably get some food. I didn't understand what insoluble questions could emerge from this solmen moment, but so be it...

In any case, as I stumbled out onto the front stoop, I found Ian and Amy crouched down, with the overhead light on, petting a rather fetching, slightly rounded grayish calico with white feet. All she had was a flea collar, so we couldn't determine where she lived - or whether she even had a home, or perhaps had gotten lost, which turned out to be gist of the dilemma. Amy was thinking about all the ways we could try to find her owner - which didn't amount to very many possibilities - and then there was the ongoing musing about whether she was hungry, whether she was pregnant, why would she be here if she weren't lost, etc. It wouldn't suprise anyone who knew either of them that both parties were contemplating whether there were any way we could *possibly* add her to the current menagerie of two small, neurotic dogs, a bunny and six guinea pigs. In a house with at least two people who are allergic to cats...

Ian, in a typically beautiful balance of mercy and practicality, asked if we could build a house for her and bring her cat food.

[Ian has always had a soft spot for cats. When he and Amy visited Build-A-Bear at an age when he was barely verbal, chose, over all the bears in the shop, a mother-cat -and-kitten pair of cats to stuff, and these became his favorite stuffed animals, following him far and wide. He also likes to play at being a kitten... He himself recognizes that he loves "aminals".]

Somehow, the cat actually went away very soon after we initially decided to go in and think about it some more, but for the rest of the evening, whenever I went out for anything, when I came back in, Ian would eagerly ask whether the cat was still there.

When he finally accepted the fact that the cat had moved on, he lamented, "I really wanted that cat to come back and have us take care of it."

(August 5, 2008)