It’s been a year since that cold rainy night. My mom alerted me to the sound of an animal scared in the rain. I went outside and peeked through the large grass in my neighbors yard just in time to see a little figure run past. I decided to leave food out in a dry area to encourage any strays to a warm dry meal.
The next day the food was gone. Over the course of a few weeks I met her. Wonderful perfect little Meatball. Not her real name of course, one she would later earn after she ate so much that she started to look like a meatball. It was a slow process to get her to trust us. But after a month she was coming when I called and would sleep on my front porch every night.
Winter was cold, and one night after a bad storm and watching my daughter nervously stare out her bedroom window worrying about the stray outside, I knew it was time. I didn’t see her for two days. I thought it was too late. I went through every scenario in my head, I worried about her freezing, I worried someone had hit her, I worried selfishly that someone saw how amazing she was and took her in before I could.
But then she showed up, and I was waiting. I had a collar ready and flee medication in hand. I had never picked her up before, thank God my boyfriend gently pet her and then lifted her right up and into the house. She didn’t panic. My other cats did. But I had a small room for her to get her used to us.
She hid under a chair for about thirteen seconds then came and laid with me in my room. When my boyfriend picked her up he had said, this is my cat now. And they have become thick as thieves. She sleeps with us every night. She has more character quarks than I have ever seen in a cat. And above anything else she is safe and happy. And knows nothing but love since she adopted us.
NOTTINGHAM, MD
