October 5, 2006
Ebby's Story
One night my wife and I were spending a lovely evening at home watching television, when suddenly she turned to me and told me to turn down the television volume. I asked why, and she told me she thought she heard voices outside. We live in a condominium complex, and so we often hear people talking on the pathways that meander through the complex. I did as she asked, and sure enough there was a group of people just outside our window talking.
Being the nosey people we are, we strained to listen to the conversation, and we soon realized that these people had found a kitten, and were trying to find out where she belonged. My wife and I had recently fostered three kittens for a local cat rescue outfit, (that is how Athena came into my life,) and so I ventured outside to talk to the people about possibly taking the found cat to the adoption people.
The man holding the kitten told me that he had been out that evening for a walk, when he suddenly saw a large white dog chasing the poor thing. He somehow managed to catch the kitten and chase off the dog. After that, he wasn't sure what to do, and began knocking on doors in an effort to find the kittens owners. I told him about the adoption people, but he said that he couldn't foster the kitten because he had too many pets already. So who do you guess took the kitten in?
At first we kept the kitten in the garage because at that time we already had Angel, Athena, and Salem. We felt that was too many animals for this street kitten to manage so soon. But the kitten felt lonely in the garage, and yowled to be let out. Fearing a call by the neighbors to the animal protection agency, we let the kitten out, but supervised all contact between her and the rest of our crew.
Athena took a liking to the new kitten at once. In fact, Athena treated her like her own kitten even though Athena was still technically a kitten herself. Soon, she and the kitten were fast friends, and they were inseparable.
I contacted the adoption agency and they said they would of course take our kitten as long as we agreed to foster her. I said that would be fine, and since the foster family can choose the name for the cats available for adoption, we decided to name her Ebony. We named her Ebony because she is almost completely black, and also because she came to us in the dead of night.
The very first time I took Ebby to the adoption center she quite literally cried herself hoarse. She cried when I put her in her crate, she cried all during the drive to the adoption location, she cried from the car to inside the building, and when I picked her up, the people at the adoption center told me she had cried ALL DAY!
They also told me the only time she didn't cry was when a lady asked to see her, and they brought her out of her crate. Unfortunately she only stopped crying long enough to attack the lady. She didn't hurt the woman; just a few scratches and one well placed bite, but it was enough to turn the poor woman against the idea of taking Ebby home.
Ebby also didn't cry much on the way home, however, she did try. By then, though, her voice was gone, and I think she knew she was going "home" anyway because she just sort of curled up in her crate and napped on the way home.
While Ebby was at the adoption center, Athena was going nuts wondering where her "baby" went. She would wander around the house calling to Ebby, and became more and more distressed when Ebby wouldn't appear. She became so wound up that she started bugging me by following me around, howling, and trying to get me to follow her. When I brought Ebby home Athena lavished great love on Ebby, rubbing up against her, and cleaning her ears. (The ear cleaning style of showing affection has since been passed down to Jackie.)
And that is the way it went for three weeks, and each week it became more and more evident that we would be doing a great wrong to Athena and Ebby by separating them, thus, the last trip I made to the adoption center was to let them know Ebby would no longer be available for adoption, she had found a home.
Tragically, when Athena was a little over two years old, she died, but that is another story, and has already been told*. Ebby became melancholy, and to this day has not really bonded with either of the other two cats, or with Jackie or Angel. She keeps to herself, and doesn't seek human affection very often. She does spend most of her time in my stepson's room, and he treats her well. She also will come to me every so often, and she will sit with me for a while and let me pet her. When she does, I think of Athena, and the special relationship the three of us had. I wonder what Ebby thinks.
More cats can be found at the Friday Ark at The Modulator, and the Carnival of the Cats this Sunday.
*My apologies to CheeseBurger Brown. I love his writing, and stole this phrase, "but that is another story, and has already been told" from him.