Cat Life

If someone had told Tabitha how much she would identify with a cat she had taken in, she wouldn’t have believed it. Nobody would believe it. She and her husband share the secret.

Tabitha had been living alone for a couple of months when a cat started coming around that liked to be pet. It was a healthy cat and seemed well fed. Tabitha pet it, and when it rolled on its back, Tabitha brought out a shoestring and played. The cat had a flea collar and another collar with a bell around its neck. Tabitha thought it must belong to someone.

Autumn turned into winter, and the cat still came around in the cold. The collars were gone from its neck. It purred when Tabitha gave it attention. Still, Tabitha thought the cat belonged to someone.

One night, it was cold, raining, and sleeting, and Tabitha took the garbage to the curb for pick up the next morning. As she was walking back to the house, the cat came up to her, rubbing against Tabitha’s legs. Tabitha stroked the cat, who responded as if she liked being pet. Its fur was like a saturated sponge. Tabitha then realized the cat had no place to go. She took the cat in.

The cat didn’t want to be pet so much when it was inside, but with the cat in the house, Tabitha didn’t feel lonely. She named the cat Grace.

Years before she took in Grace, Tabitha started college. She found a circle of friends who studied business in the same graduating class. Tabitha and her friends studied and socialized together.

In her circle of friends in college was Tabitha’s best friend from high school, Maggie. They took most of their courses together and were roommates throughout college.

Early in their graduating year, everyone in Tabitha’s group o f friends found jobs. Many of them found jobs in the same town a couple of hours drive from the college. Maggie worked in a different department of the same bank as Tabitha. They bought houses within a mile of each other. The friends who lived in the same town continued to meet weekly on Friday nights. They met in a local pub that had a rotating choice of beers on tap.

Some of Tabitha’s friends got married and had children. They continued to meet with the group on Friday nights when they could. The bonds they had seemed to be for life.

Tabitha’s single friends liked to travel together on their vacations. Once Tabitha had the cat, she didn’t like to leave it in a kennel for more than a few days at a time. She stayed home like the married friends.

Tabitha had Grace for ten years when Grace got sick. The cat struggled to breathe. She lost her appetite and vomited. She was also lethargic. Tabitha took Grace to the vet, who ran several tests on the cat.

The vet was somber. “It’s cancer. It is in the liver but spreading to other organs of her body.”

Tabitha raised her eyebrows. “I didn’t even know cats could get cancer. Does this mean you have to put her down?”

The vet said, “Sometimes we can cure cancer. This kind of cancer usually responds to chemotherapy.”

Tabitha sighed. “A cat can have chemotherapy? What kind of side effects will it have?”

The vet said, “She could have gastrointestinal and bone marrow issues.”

Tabitha frowned. “So she’ll throw up more and have the runs, but bone marrow issues sound serious. What can you do about that?”

The vet said, “We’ll deal with that if it comes up. The big problem with bone marrow issues is that she’ll be susceptible to infections.”

Tabitha left Grace with the vet and went home. She got into bed and bawled for most of the night. She finally cried herself to sleep, but when the alarm clock went off, she had a sore throat and a bad headache. She called in sick for work, something she rarely did.

When Grace came home, she didn’t digest any of her food. She vomited and had diarrhea. She curled up in a box and slept. Tabitha didn’t go to the Friday girls night out.

The cancer wasn’t completely removed. The white blood cells dropped, and Grace developed a chest infection. Tabitha finally told the vet to put the cat down. Grace was suffering too much.

The veterinarian put the cat down and Tabitha arranged for cremation. It was a communal cremation, and Tabitha didn’t take any ashes. The living, loving cat was gone.

Tabitha didn’t go to work. She sat in her house staring into space.

Tabitha’s best friend, Maggie, called. “Hi! What’s going on? You haven’t been coming around for girls night out on Friday nights and you haven’t been to work for a few days.”

Tabitha said, “I had my cat put down after bringing her through terrible treatments.”

Maggie said, “I know your cat’s illness upset you, but it is out of its misery. You can stop worrying and enjoy life again.”

Tabitha said, “It’s not that simple. I was responsible for her suffering. I betrayed her to chemotherapy.”

Maggie said, “You did the best you could. I’ll report to the company that you had a death in the family that devastated you to the point of physical illness. Please don’t tell them it was your cat.”

Tabitha said, “Okay. Thanks, I guess.”

Maggie said, “Get back with the living. Withdrawing isn’t healthy.”

Tabitha said, “That’s how animals heal. They pull away from everything, curl up, and sleep until they are better.”

Maggie said, “You’re a human being. You need your social life.”

Tabitha said, “Whatever.”

After the phone call with Maggie, Tabitha felt claustrophobic in her house. She went out and sat on her back porch, wearing the sweatsuit she had slept in. It was chilly, but the cold blunted the psychological pain she was in. Silent, warm tears rolled down her face.

Tabitha found the flight of birds and the movement of rabbits to be mesmerizing. She paid attention when a car went by within hearing distance. She was alert to any other sounds around the house. She heard her cell phone ringing in the house. That didn’t interest her the way the back yard and outside noises did.

As she sat, Tabitha noticed that everything around her was getting bigger and bigger. At the same time, she was getting warmer. She tried to scratch her ear, but it was in a different place on her head, and it took a different movement of her hand to do it. She turned and looked at her arm. It was now covered with fur and instead of hands, she had paws with sharp claws she could extend. She looked down. Her clothes had fallen off around her. Fur covered her whole body. She had turned into a cat.

Tabitha remembered her cat, now not as a source of sorrow, but as a role model. She stood up and stretched the way her cat had. She found the stretch satisfying. She tried licking her fur the way she had seen her cat do. That, too, was satisfying. She licked herself all over, and it felt as good and cleansing as a hot shower would have before. She couldn’t imagine wanting a shower now.

When Tabitha finished cleaning herself, she found she was very hungry. She couldn’t remember when she had last eaten. Also, she could smell the birds and rabbits, and they were appetizing.

Tabitha stepped off the porch and into the yard. She found her body to be agile. She thought she saw a movement in the corner of the yard, and she leaped a few times and pounced on it. It turned out to be only a frog, but she caught it, and she was starving, so she bit into it. It didn’t taste great, but Tabitha’s hunger won out.

Then she remembered there was food in the house. Tabitha went back to the door, but there was no way for her to go in. She remembered that the cat she had taken in had gone door to door before she had a home and several people fed it. She went around to the front of the house and looked up and down the street. Some people were getting out of their car. She ran to them and rubbed against the couple’s legs.

The woman said, “Oh, what a nice cat.”

The man said, “We don’t know where it’s been. I don’t like stray cats. They might have rabies.

Tabitha sat looking at them.

The woman said, “I don’t know. This one doesn’t have rabies. It looks clean. It wants some attention.”

She pat Tabitha on the head and they went in their house without her.

Tabitha went back to her back yard. That was her territory and she could smell the animals there. She saw a rabbit eating grass and pounced on it. With a little struggle, she killed the rabbit. She tore into it and ate its insides. Much better than frog.

After Tabitha had eaten, she cleaned herself again, but an eagle swooped down on her. It grasped her with its claws and started to fly. Tabitha wriggled with all her might and escaped the eagle’s grasp. She ran into a crawl space under the shed in the back yard. She liked the closed in feeling she got from it as well as the shade. She cleaned herself all over again and then curled up and started to go to sleep. Something was moving on the ground, though. It was long and wriggled around. Tabitha pounced on it, but it wriggled away. She pounced on it a few more times, and finally caught the snake. She bit off its head and ate the whole thing.

It became dark outside. Tabitha heard a rustling a short distance from the shed and could smell another animal. She jumped on a small fox. They struggled. Tabitha hissed and scratched. The fox bit her ear. She clawed at the fox until the fox finally ran away.

Tabitha walked around the backyard, sniffing all around. It was cold and windy out. She finally settled in a place between the front of the house and some bushes. She could see the entry path to the house and the road. The house completely blocked the wind on one side. The bush hid her and gave some protection from the wind on the other side. At the same time, nobody could see her. She felt safe. She ruffled her fur against the cold and fell asleep.

The next following day was very cold. Tabitha’s place behind the bush in front of the house offered some protection. Still, she wanted to go inside. Also, she felt hungry again. She remembered her cat. It had developed relationships with several people in the neighborhood who fed her. Tabitha went across the street but nobody was there, so Tabitha rested between that house and bushes in front of it.

A car drove up to Tabitha’s house. She ran back home. Maggie stepped out of the car and went up to the front door of the house. Tabitha reached Maggie and started purring and rubbing against Maggie’s legs. Maggie stomped her foot at Tabitha.

“Go away, cat.”

Tabitha cried out a meow and ran back across the street.

Maggie worried about Tabitha. She wasn’t going to work, she sounded distraught, and now she wasn’t answering her phone. Maggie had a key to Tabitha’s house, so she went over there, expecting the worst. A stray cat ran up to Maggie. Maggie never cared for cats, so she got it to run away.

Inside, she found Tabitha’s cell phone on a coffee table. Tabitha’s purse was on a chair. She couldn’t find Tabitha anywhere in the house. She looked out the back door and saw Tabitha’s clothes there. That was strange.

Maggie called 911 and said there was a missing person. They told her to wait a few days and call the police department instead of emergency services. She still worried, but she went back to work.

Tabitha found she especially liked to look for food around dawn and sunset. She also liked sleeping, but it was cold.

Instead of hunting for small animals, she started going door to door, trying to get attention. At the first door she went to, she heard a yappy dog. That wasn’t a good place for her.

She went to the next house and rested between the house and bushes like she did at her own house. When a woman came out in the morning, Tabitha came out and rubbed against her legs. The woman reached down and pet Tabitha, but then made her way to her car.

Tabitha went to another house, but when she rubbed against that woman’s legs, the woman stamped her foot at Tabitha and said, “Go away! Don’t touch me.”

Tabitha found it easy to remember where people welcomed her and where they didn’t. She went back to the houses where people were friendly to her. Some of them started putting cat food out for her.

When it rained, Tabitha usually went under the shed in her back yard. It wasn’t ideal, though. It didn’t always stay dry. One wet night she went to one of the houses where a woman left food for her, and the woman let her in. Immediately, a bigger cat already in the house attacked Tabitha. They hissed. They scratched. They bit. Tabitha heard the door open again and she turned and ran out.

Tabitha made her rounds every morning and evening, eating at several doors twice a day.

There was one young man who gave her a lot of attention but didn’t put any food out. He petted her and she responded. He didn’t understand that she didn’t belong to anyone else. She made sure to greet him whenever he came in or went out.

One night it was very cold. The rain was pouring with sleet and snow mixed in. Tabitha saw the young man taking out his garbage. She went up to him and let him know she wanted to be pet. The man finally understood she needed a place to stay and let her in.

Tabitha shook the water off herself as well as she could. The man tried to dry her off with a towel. He then went out, leaving her in the house to explore. There was no other animal there to attack her. He lived alone, so nobody else would shoo her out. Tabitha curled up on the seat of a soft chair, comfortably warm for the first time since she had become a cat.

The man came back home with everything needed for a cat to live in a house. He set up a litter box for her and gave her a can of food to eat. When she had eaten, the man petted her. His care and affection overwhelmed Tabitha. She started to cry, and as she cried, she turned back into a woman.