My Kitty and our Connection

This isn't a story of a ghost cat laying on my hip in the bed in the middle of a dark stormy night, or even of seeing a blur out of the corner of my eye, although I have. This is how I found my kitty, Peekaboo, who was connected to me so much in life that it carried on after death.

My cat peekaboo was a light gray colored tabby with no tail, not that she was born a manx, the x-rays showed it was severed at some point for some strange reason. She was an outdoor cat, nothing could stop her, she stalked the door day in day out without fail. She would have a conversation with me, and urinated in my closet when I displeased her (or someone else I dared to bring over to my house did anyway). This was how she was in life. The day of her demise was July 11th, 2007. I know this because the night it happened I heard her meet her fate right in my backyard, but didn't realize it.

I work in a hospital in the Metro Atlanta Area, I am a unit clerk. My boyfriend is a vet technician in the area as well and just happened to have the day off. He texts me on my phone that Peekaboo is missing, he hasn't seen her all day (unheard of for her, usually as we wake up she's already waiting at the door to be let out for a days adventure of killing moles and chipmunks, even baby rabbits [twice], (AND WITH NO CLAWS) and he has looked around the neighborhood for her, and even shook the cat food, my favorite trick for luring her in. I'm concerned but sometimes she just gets excited and can be gone for hours, chasing whatever wherever. Our backyard is basically the woods off of the freeway, literally you can hear highway traffic all day every day.

My guy picks me up later on at about 1 and we have lunch, a very long and drawn out lunch because I couldn't wait to get home. I knew I would find her, It just had to be me, because I was her human, no offense to my baby, She and I were just... connected. I had cried on her many times and she saw me go through an abusive relationship, and she was there for me. I firmly believe that. So we get home and she's nowhere to be found... "Odd," I think because as soon as my car pulls up she is usually right there, if not in the driveway, being lazy. She is not there so immediately I'm on the phone to vet hospitals, even though I know she has an ID tag, rabies tag, and microchip tag clinging to her neck (like I said outdoor cat, I'm protective of her). Now I'm worried. Nothing from the vet clinics, nothing from shaking dry cat food. "Oh no" I think.

My boyfriend has to leave to go see about his car and leaves the house in mine. Determined to find peekaboo, I set out on foot down the street, intent on one persons house, a woman who in the past has trapped animals and had been rumored to put anti-freeze in her garden, to poison unknowing house cats and dogs. As I'm leaving, my brother pulls up in his mustang and joins me on the trip, we had only taken this same trip 2 years earlier when our other cat went missing. He was recovered, by the way. So we check her backyard, she's only 7 or 8 houses down, and there is nothing there not even a cage like there were last time. There is however a path between her house and her neighbor's that leads down to a very odd place. The path leads to a barb wired fenced in area, for what I couldn't tell you, but a beautiful Ivy covered woods and small pond make it almost appealing, if not for the bugs! I then turn to my brother and say "I would so much rather find her body than not know, I couldn't take not knowing" I had lost a dog the summer before that way, and I still grieve to this day.

He decides we need to go back, we'll try animal control. Maybe they picked her up and are being stupid government employees (not that we have experience in idiot government workers or anything - ha ha). As we are walking back to my house we pass an orange house that has been vacant for some time. "HEY! Let's check there! My dogs got stuck back there a couple of times, it's possible maybe she's hurt and stuck" I suggest. My brother shrugs and walks right back there. I don't see anything, but am distracted by looking at the inside of the house. We go back to the house and I call my boyfriend because I'm ready to go to animal control NOW. As I'm talking to him on the phone my brother asks if that is my boyfriend and asks for the phone. Then he retreats into the bathroom. Weird, I think, but whatever. So I call another clinic and as I'm getting off the phone my brother looks at me and says something I did not want to hear "Stop calling. She was in that backyard..."

So we make the long, nerve racked denial filled journey 3 houses down to Peekaboo's final resting place. My brother drapes his arm around me as I see her body for the first time... It couldn't be. An enormous puncture wound on her abdomen, a purple bruised back leg, fur slicked back like she had been gnawed on... A dog.

But not just any dog.

The night before I had a lot of trouble sleeping and in my sleep I heard our neighbor yelling at his dogs more than usual, and the dogs barking and howling much more than usual. I had heard my cat being murdered in that stage of sleep that you don't realize something is wrong, or do you?

How did I know to go that house?

How did I Know to look back there?

Why did those dogs kill my kitty?

At least I found her, like I had told my brother not 10 minutes before he found her and I strategically didn't. Even in death, Peekaboo was looking out for me, if I had discovered her body by myself... I would be even more of a wreck than I already am. If I hadn't found her then I would still be looking for her this time next year, and the next.

Love you Boo, Miss you too...