Her name was Spooky, and I found her living in a hole under the sidewalk in front of my condo in Alexandria, VA, in February of 1991. She had a pointy little tail and bright blue eyes which she beamed at me as I took groceries out of my car in the parking lot, just before she dashed down into her hole.

I rented a trap from SPCA and set it out with food in it. It was cold out, so I would set the trap before I left for work in the morning and bring it in at night … would not want to catch her above ground over night when she could freeze.

I asked a couple of the little old lobby ladies to keep an eye on the trap for me and to call me at work if the kitty was caught. What I caught the first couple times out were a cat from across the street looking for an extra snack, and a possum who was happy to just be let go. Next few days I found an empty trap with the food gone. The baby was too little to spring the door … it took at least a pound of pressure. Apparently, she ate well enough in the trap to finally activate the door, and I came home from work one day to be greeted in the lobby to my two watchers … one of them had the trap with the kitten in it in her bathroom … she said the animal was wild and frenzied.

I went in cautiously and opened the trap door, and out came this little whirlwind of fur, trying desperately to escape, climbing the walls and finally finding a perch on the shower curtain rod, where she glared down at me, cross eyed, and hissing like a fearsome tiger. Eventually, I got her trapped in a corner where, seeing no way out, she pretended to die and went limp, thinking I might go away … a lesson she may have learned from the possum.

I took her right to the vet to get a checkup and shots … I did not want the baby to carry anything viral to my eight year old cat, Bunny. When she was pronounced healthy, I brought her to my condo apartment, where she lived in the guest bathroom until I could “find her a home,” ha ha. She had already found one.

Although she did her best to hide behind the litter box, or in the dark recesses of a paper grocery bag I had provided as a cave for her, she eventually came to welcome my visits in the bathroom and, one day, when I was on the floor peering into the bag she was hiding in, she walked out and bumped my forehead with hers. I, of course, melted on the spot.

Poor bunny, now had a kitten to contend with, who would lay in waiting for the older cat to innocently walk by before springing out to attack her. Bunny got so tired of being ambushed, I put a bell collar on the baby, so that Bunny and I both could keep track of where she was.

Bunny died in 2001 just short of her 18th birthday, and Spooky and I were on our own. She moved to Florida with me when I retired in 2002, where she learned to love lying belly up in a late afternoon sunbeam.

She died in mid December of 2005, the exact date is escaping me, because I was so distraught to lose her… I thought she had a couple more years left, but the end was fairly quick. She staggered across the floor one night in obvious distress, and we ran to the 24 hour vet nearby, where they said there was no hope. Maybe I should have brought her home to die peacefully in my arms, but I did not want her to suffer any more than she had to, so I let them put a needle in her little paw, and I stroked her until she was gone.

She lit up my life and left a hole in my heart. BUT, as with a couple other of my dear fur angels, I had a dream shortly after she died, and my mother was in it, and so was Spooky … I awoke with a comforting feeling that my mom would take care of my kitty until I get to wherever they are.

20 Nov 2011: This is in my art portfolio, having been long hidden from public view. I just made it public again, in a lot of groups, but old pictures that have been hidden do not go up as new work when you unhide them. So I copied the image and description into a new writing. The picture was brought of hiding for submission to The Rainbow Group. I do not normally put my writings into groups, but I did want it shown as new work to any watch lists I might be in.