Sick Girl and Sad Cat Story

I am not usually a person who gets sick. I have been pretty proud of that. But this year, I don't know if its my constantly going in and outside, my prancing around outdoors near a beach with no coat on, or if I just have not been taking great care of myself, but I have just been feeling sort of ugh and bleah for months now. And since last night, my throat just plain ol' hurts. Its like a dozen tiny kittens, unicorns and porcupines have decided to play along my esophagus. I drink and i drink cold and hot liquids but its just so painful. UGH.

So i have a sad story to tell now. Then you can decide whether I am a bad person or not. I have a second job where I get home pretty late. And the other night i saw a cat and i made that standard noise you make when you see a cat. Its that weird tongue clicking noise you know what I mean? And the cat totally comes running towards me.

I love cats so, rabies or fleas or no, I bend down and start petting and cuddling this cat, more like an older kitten, who is meowing and meowing and meowing. Its a grey tortoishell kind of color, green eyes, a female. Very anxious, won't stop moving and meowing. No tag, one paw looks a little hurt. I ask passersby about it, apparently the cat has been there all day, meowing and following people.

I call my sweety, as our apartment is less than a block away. I tell him about the cat, and he is like, "Just come home, leave the cat alone."

"But...but...its a KITTEN." I say.

For the record, i LOVE cats and would love one, except in nyc, it would have to be an indoor cat and...I have always had cats that could run around outside, so to me, having an indoor cat is kind of mean to the cat.

And also for the record, my sweety....is not a fan of the cats. Long story.

Anyway! I decide to bring the cat into my apartment foyer to call Animal Control.

I call 411, which tells me to call 311, which gives me a number that is out of service...We give the cat tuna and water and I give it lots of petting, but its still pacing and meowing REALLY loud for such a tiny cat.

Eventually i learn that there is no service in NYC that will pick up a hurt stray animal, and no place that I can drop the cat off to, since everything is closed at 11 at night...I was super frustrated and crying at this point, that

a) a cat could be hurt and have no help, from the city or passersby

b) someone would possibly abandon a little animal after buying/adopting it

c) people on the phone were not being very helpful

We decide to bring it up to our bathroom, (since we didnt know if it had fleas and our house is not kittyproof) and i would take her in a cardboard box on the subway the next morning to a shelter that may or not exist (according to the phone number) or accept a stray cat.

I put the cat, tuna, water, a blanket and a hot water bottle in our bathroom and stayed with her until she calmed. She was purring, she was happy. I went back to my sweety to look at shelter info on the computer. The cat begins yowling really loud. I go back to her, pet her. She still won't stop pacing, all freaked out. But I can't stay in the bathroom all night, and then I remembered our neighbors. They have kids, they work in the morning. Most apartments have very poor sound insulation so....

The cat gets louder and starts scratching and freaking out in the bathroom.

We decide we have to put the cat outside with food and if she is there in the morning, take her to the possible shelter...its not an easy decision. My sweety wonders if the cat's behavior is why people abandoned her in the first place....I feel like a horrible person. I put her outside near the apartment in a box with the blanket, food, water, hot water bottle for warmth.

I get up at 7 am the next day....tuna is gone and so is she.

Friends that I tell the story to laugh it off, like I am a crazy person for caring for this anxious little cat. Sweety reminds me that even if i had taken the cat to the shelter, I would most likely have been charged to pay for the cat's medical bills.

He said that a lot of times, pet owners 'find' a cat, take it to the shelter so they don't have to pay their own pet's medical bills. The shelter would have no way of knowing if i was the true owner or not. And since I have no pet, I have no idea how much it would cost to fix a cat that I would never see again, anyway. Its tempting to say, I did my best, maybe it all worked out for the best, the cat can totally take care of itself but...it was really frightened and upset.

I see so many people every day on the street that are homeless, on the subway, asking me for spare change, and you would think you get used to it.

But you never do.

And it kinda kills you inside a tiny bit, every time you can't fix something or help someone.

Getting back to the regular schedule of my shallow style fixations after this post.