The Closet Case

I answered the phone as I got ready to help Daniel with whatever it was he needed. He was helping our former landlord repair some damages to a recently emptied unit. He usually called when he needed me to bring his tools downstairs or get supper going so he could eat when he got home. God forbid he actually remember to take a lunch break when he was doing his construction work.

"Caroline, I'm on my way home. I have a box of cats," he said sounding out of breath.

I blinked a few times and looked at Tipsee and Tiger. The two of them were resting on the foot of the bed and had taken a month to get used to one another.

"What do you mean you have a box of cats," I wasn't entirely sure I understood what he was getting at.

"I found a cat with four kittens in the closet over there. Boss said I could take them home. Some jerk locked them in a closet without food or water and never told him," he explained.

My heart ached for those kitties. I didn't understand how anyone could abandon any animal like that. God bless Danny's heart. This was one of the many reasons I loved him. He was probably just as appalled as I was.

"What kind of..." I paused not wanting to swear in front of my kids, "How could someone just leave those poor babies like that?"

"I don't know. This is why I hate people," he replied.

I nodded to myself and picked up the two male cats so I could move them to the boys room. Thankfully my sons were behaving today and just played nicely with their sister in her room so they wouldn't be tormenting the cats right now.

When Daniel came through the door with a Huggies box in his arms I rushed to have a look. The mother was white. Three of the kittens were also white and snuggled up with their oddball orange brother. Some of them had a few black spots or patches on tome of their heads.

"When they get older I'll find them good homes. For now they need their mother. I doubt our other cats will let them stay for good but we can keep them separated until they don't need milk anymore," I said gently petting their heads.

Daniel nodded and went with me to our bedroom where the cats would stay for the next couple of months. I sat with him on our bed as we checked their genders and I looked up some strong names for them. In the end we came up with Isis for the mother, after an Egyptian fertility goddess. Following this idea the little orange boy we called Bast, and his sisters were Hecate, Freya, and Erishkegal. We called her Eris for short.

We still have Hecate but I found homes for the others. Isis and Freya are still together and I was able to convince a friend of ours who wanted an orange kitten to keep Bast and Eris both. The male cats never got warmed up to the new brood.

Tiger escaped one day and no matter how many times I brought him back inside he just got meaner each time. I finally gave up on bringing him back inside when I realized he now only went potty inside the house if he could access our laundry bin for it. Some kind people up the road agreed to feed him along with the strays they already put food and water outside for. I wasn't too worried. He'd been an outdoor cat for a year before we took him in anyway.

Tipsee and Hecate are now best friends. They started out fighting but eventually as tensions died down with less cats around their fights became more and more playful.