Angel

This is about a cat, it's actually a kitten. How she's saved from death and then adopted from off the streets, only to have a short life.

It was a rainy day when we got a new cat, I was in kindergarten, she was a pretty cat, white with a big gray patch on her back, one on her ear and tip of her tail.  It had felt like the worlds shortest day in one place and then in another.  Playing on the monkey bars all during recess to nap time and ABC’s to the bus.  We goofed around on the bus, crawling under the seats and popping up in another.  I laid on my back on the seat facing the window and watched the window fog up and the rain fall.  When it finally came my stop, the last stop, I got up, hugged the bus driver and said good bye to him before I got off into the rain and ran down the driveway to the house.  I went inside to find just my dad in the living room starting a fire.  I ran to my room and dropped my backpack down and ran through the other door to the kitchen.  Jumping and landing on my stomach to slide across the floor to the living room and peering my head around the corner at my dad lighting the fire, then I crawled on the carpet to behind the recliner on the little lift under the window and hid watching the rain fall down hard over the field.

“Where’s mommy?” I asked him.

“She’s on her way home little buddy” my dad replied.

            I nodded my head and watched the rain fall once more, after a while I got bored of watching the rain fall so I got up and went back to my room to play.  I went into my closet to find a toy and pulled out my Legos.  I started to build a building that looked some what like a castle when I heard the door close.  I got up and ran to the door to see my mom standing holding a cat.  She put the cat down and it just curled up in a ball with its paws tucked under.  She looked cold, so I went to pet her when I heard.

“Wait Mack don’t touch her.”

            I pulled my hand back and I looked again, my dad saw it the first time, she’s got fleas on her.  I watched amazed at the little bugs jumping up and down and all around her little body that wasn’t any bigger then two thirds of a loaf of bread.  She was a half dead cat hanging onto life by a thread that was less then paper thin.  Dad picked her up and told me to fill the sink in the bathroom with what, so I did.

“Is the kitty okay daddy?” I was concerned, but intrigued because I’ve never seen an animal die before I haven’t seen anything die before.

“She’ll be fine little buddy, Erika can you grab that bottle of flea shampoo for me,” It wasn’t even a request at that point it was an I need it now.

I watched him put the cat in the water, almost instantaneously the water when from clear to a blush red to a solid light red.  The image of that water is still a vivid memory for me.  He started to scrub the cat a little bit, my mom putting the shampoo on it as he was scrubbing.  You could see the fleas jumping off the cat like a crew abandoning ship trying to get away but just falling into death of the waters.  “Sorry kitty,” My dad said as he dunked the cat’s head under the water.

            The kitty didn’t fight, didn’t flip out in the water, it didn’t even look like it was living.  My dad lifted her up a little out of the water for us to see her, blood and fleas falling off her.  I looked at her face and she looked right back at me, I could see the pain in her eyes as she slowly blinked and I watched the fleas crawl from her ears to her nose and her eyes.  It felt like forever that we looked at each other before my dad dunked her under again to keep washing her off hoping and praying to get most of the fleas off her.  When my mom and sister left the room on the verge of tears I stayed to help my dad wash her off.

            He drained the water and held the cat up nothing but fur and bone, the only thing on her was her belly and it wasn’t even any wider then two ta three fingers.  I got a towel and handed it to my dad and he wrapped her all up in the towel and handed her to me and told me to go sit down with her.  I walked to the living room and sat down on the couch with her and dried her off a little bit with the towel looking at her face.  It happened again she looked right at me, only this time it wasn’t pain, it was relief.  I held her close to me and hugged her, my parents decided we would keep her but she still needed to see a vet to make sure she would be okay.

“Where did you find this cat Sal?” My dad asked my mom

“On the side of the road!” Her voice was concerned

“I saw this little white figure on the side of the road and as I drove closer to it I realized it was a cat.  So I put the car in park and got out and picked it up and put it on the back seat and came down the drive way.  I didn’t know it had fleas on it at all but I knew it was still alive because it was still moving, but not very fast it was just barely walking.”  When she finished my dad just looked at her and then shook his head.

“We’ll bring her to the vet in the morning.”

“Daddy can I come? Please?” I asked really hoping he would say yes.

“No little buddy you got school tomorrow I will let you know  how it goes when I get back ok?”

I got a little sad and nodded my head looking at the kitty in my arms wraped up in the towel feeling her whole body shake. “Daddy I think it’s cold it’s shaking really bad”

He just nodded and grabbed a little blanket and wrapped it around the towel and let me hold her again and all I did was smile.  I must have had the biggest grin on because my parents let me name her.

“What should we name this cat?” My dad asked us.

“I wanna name this cat sissy got to name snickers!” The last kitten we had got, though we wanted to call him baby because he looked like a dark brown cat till you picked him up and his crotch was all white like he had a diaper on.

“Ok what would you to name the cat?” My mom asked me.

            I thought about it and thought about it and then realized the perfect name for this cat.

“I know!”

“What?”

“Angel” I had the biggest grin on my face and my parents agreed that it was a good name so the kitty’s name became Angel.

            The next day we got a flea collar for her but she still wouldn’t eat.  She would drink a little bit but she was so weak from not eating and she wouldn’t eat the dry food.  My dad went out and got some wet caned food to see if this would help, he opened the can and put a little water in it and mashed it all up.  Angel started eating a little bit that night, and she seemed to be getting better too.  With in the next week she was hoping all around and happy as could be didn’t seem to have a worry in the world.  I played with her all the time if I got up on the counter I’d bring her with me and let her sit there and sniff the stove and then put her down.

            She disappeared from sight and I looked all around the house wondering where she went and couldn’t find her till I looked back in the kitchen and saw this little head pop out from the corner of the cupboards where they meet in the corner.

“Angel! How did you get there?” I said as I walked over and she quickly pulled her head back into the hole.

            I looked and saw the hole and wondered where she went in it when I heard something and I looked over my right shoulder and just passed the stove was her head.

“Angel,” I said as I moved again and she popped her head back in the hole and I laughed when she did because it was like peak a boo.  So I got up and I ran to the basement to get dad.

“Daddy come look Angel is in the Cupboards!”

“What do you mean in the cupboards?”

“She’s under them daddy! She found a hole.”

            I turned around and ran back up the stairs and went back to the kitchen to see her starting to crawl out of the hole that was between the sink and stove.  My dad trailed behind me now curious what I was talking about. “See!” I said as I pointed to Angel getting her hind legs out of the hole and running into the living room.

            My dad’s face looked shocked and puzzled at the same time.  I got on the floor and looked for the holes and stuck my hand in the same one again.  “See there’s a hole here” I said and then took my hand out to go to the other hole and do the same. “And then there’s one here.”

            I looked at my dad and his face seemed to be shocked like he had no clue they were there.  Then he told me to go play so I went outside and romped around like normal till it was dark.

            Three months went by playing with Angel and loving her as much as possible her fleas were finally all gone after the first month, we could take the flea collar off her, it only took two more flea baths to get them gone.  Then something started happening.  She started to get slow again, she started to eat less, drink less, and lay around on the couch more.  I would hold her in my lap and wonder what was wrong with her.  In four days she died.  In one night she was gone forever out of our lives almost as quick as she became the biggest part of our lives.

            I remember the night she died, I won’t ever forget it.  She was on the back of the couch just barely breathing, hardly even moving, so I picked her up and brought her back to my room with me and laid there in bed with her in my arm, as I fell back asleep.  I knew it would be the last night with her we all knew it, she was worse then we had found her.  When I woke up the next morning, about 5 o’clock, she was gone.  She wasn’t in my room any more and wasn’t in my arms so I jumped out of my bed scared and in tears softly yelling “Angel?”

            I came out of my room and looked at my mom standing in the kitchen.

“Where’s Angel?” I had tears on my face and my voice was cracking from my throat all choked up.

“She died honey I came in and took her out of your room.”

“NO!” I yelled and it got quiet.

“I don’t care if she died! I want Angel I want my cat back!” I had tears running down my face clenching a little fist looking at my mom and she looked like she was going to cry as well.  Angel was buried the next morning.  She was gone forever and I missed her more then ever, to this day when I think about her I sometimes cry.  She was the best cat, friend, and pet a person could ever ask for.  She felt like she was one of the family from the moment we nursed her back to health up to the moment she left us, she just felt like she belonged with us in the house. Never the less she came to us as a half dead cat and became one of the family, then suddenly leaving like a stranger in the night.

Author's Note

Sadly this story is true. I loved this cat with all my heart, from the moment i held it in my arms wrapped up in a towel, to the night i held it close to my heart on it's last breath. I just couldn't believe how quickly i fell inlove with her and never found another pet that i've ever connected to. It's really that owner to pet relationship that i'm trying to hit home with...