A friend of mine rescued a half-grown stray kitten, pitifully small when she first found it. The size of a hand, and boy, was it a handful. I thought puppies were a handful, but this kitten took it to another level.
She told me about the kitten’s insatiable curiosity.
It’s always getting into everything; if I’m sleeping, it’s digging at my blanket, if I’m charging my phone, it’s chewing the cord, if I’m in a meeting, it’s rolling over my keyboard, and it hides whenever I try to hold it.
It ambushes me when I’m sitting, knocks over trash at night, and makes a mess with cups and flower pots during the day… just a whirlwind of chaos.
And my friend, she gets the worst of it. The cat barely acknowledges her.
The cat adores her parents the most.
She can hardly ever pet it unless she corners it. The funniest thing is, the cat waits by the door for her mom to come home every day. As soon as the door opens, it’s all cuddles and rubs.
But when my friend comes home, the cat’s nowhere to be seen. I crack up every time. She’s barely in the door and fumbling for her keys, and the cat’s already hiding. We can hardly ever find it.
The cat grew from a tiny thing to a chubby little thing, and my friend’s had her fair share of scratches and bites. It’s always her that the cat goes after, never anyone else.
So when did the cat start changing its ways?
Once, it bit her really bad, deep on the hand, nearly needed stitches. She had to get a rabies shot and a tetanus shot. She was already fed up, and coming back from the hospital, the cat was at it again, scratching and wanting to go outside. When she tried to bring it back in, it hissed at her.
She lost it, opened the door, and put the cat outside, saying if it didn’t want to be home, it could leave. There are other strays around, it wouldn’t be the only one, it wouldn’t die out there, just get out.
She was done, said it was better off gone, she didn’t want it anymore.
An afternoon went by, and her mom brought the cat back when she came home from work.
Her mom said the cat stayed put, just quietly at the door. It only started meowing pitifully when her mom returned.
Since then, the cat’s been good, no biting or scratching.
So, who says strays crave freedom…
At least not this one. It probably went through tough times as a scrawny kitten outside and doesn’t crave freedom one bit. It’s living the good life at home, well-fed and pampered, and it surely doesn’t miss wandering around outside.