Cat

I’m allergic to cats. Not just a little bit – a lot. My friend Jan tells me that unlike dogs, cats pick you. I have a cat. She picked me. I call her Mabel. I don’t know why I call her Mabel. Before I knew if she was a boy or a girl I called her T.C. short for “the cat.” But once I found out she is a girl, T.C. just didn’t work any longer. I found Mabel hiding in some St. John’s wort off the corner of my house a few weeks back. She blended in the surrounding dried grass, sitting so still I didn’t see her at first; Polo did however. Well I’m not sure if he exactly saw her since his dread locks now cover his eyes, but he could smell her. It was all I could do to distract him from chasing after her.

Mabel was so skinny. Because I’m not a cat person I didn’t have any cat food for her but Polo’s food is a high quality fish based food so I thought I’d give that a try. 

T.C. (aka "Mabel") eating dog food the first day I found her

She gobbled it after I went in the house. The next day when I put more food out for her she came running to eat; careful to stay away from my clutches but willing to take from my hand. Somewhere along the line she ended up in my garage. I didn’t know she was there. I left the house with Polo early on Monday morning to take him to my Mr. in town for the week. With no reason to enter the garage I didn’t until…Thursday evening. Polo was back with me and we were playing catch. I looked up and there was TC sitting in the window of the garage. I felt so bad. She could have died. I didn’t know she was there. No food, no water for at least four days. I got Polo in the house and brought some of his food and water to the garage. TC, as I was then calling her, was so desperately hungry that she came running to the food bowl I put out and she even ate from my hand, again. I left the garage door open for her for the rest of the night. I didn’t want to capture TC, treat TC as a hostage, but I wanted her to have a safe space.

On Saturday, not knowing if she had gone, I prepared to leave on a business trip to Chicago for several days. It was not clear to me whether TC was still in the garage or not so I left a big bowl of food (I had cat food by now), water, and a litter box…(I hoped if she was still there she knew how to use a litter box because the garage was getting pretty smelly!). I had no idea if she was still in there or not because unless she was hungry she wouldn’t show herself to me. I locked the garage and left (this is something one can never do with a dog- mostly because they always make it known when they are around). When I returned from Chicago she was at the garage door to greet me (once she verified I was alone) and proceeded to try and rub against me as cats do. What a conundrum. She wants me to pet her but as I told you I’m very allergic.I decided if I was very careful and used only one hand…

and that’s when it started, that is that’s when my heart melted. The meowing, the purring, the pure joy of touch that she exhibited, how could I send her away. I needed to let her know she could stay; she is welcome at our home. Since Polo was with the Mr. I left the garage open while I worked outside. She followed me to the garden and watched me water the tomatoes and berries. She followed me to the lower garden by our backdoor – I call it the kitchen garden- and watched me put up a simple deer fence – who knew that deer would eat jalapenos! She followed me to the front yard and watched me hunt slugs. She followed me to the street when I took out my garbage and recycle. And then when I walked to the garage calling, “Let’s go to bed, Mabel.” She followed me back into the garage, over to her food dish and asked for one last rub before we said good night. She got that rub. I washed my clothes and took a shower. Did I tell you that I’m very allergic to cats?

I wish I could give her what she seems to want…good long rubs and cuddles, But I'll do my best to give he the physical contact I can and let her know she is loved and at home. I wish I could do more, but I can’t. I think she picked me anyway. I think she belonsg here now, I think this might have decided this is her home.

Welcome home Mabel. 

Mabel the Manx coming out of the garage to greet me when I returned home today.