Bye, Bye, Kitty

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.