Simba, Penny, Bubbles and the Staring Cat

Yesterday, I was standing at the sink washing dishes. When I looked up a neighborhood tabby was sitting in the yard staring at me quite intently. I immediately thought of Harry Potter and Professor McGonagall. Some relative person had morphed into a tabby and was watching me for some reason or another. I continued washing dishes and it continued staring. Can you say spooky?

I ran over one of our cats about a month ago. Simba. Sweet, sweet boy he was. Orange Tabby reminiscent of my oldest’s first cat. He had eyes that talked to you.

I had just gotten home with the kids from the store. He always walked right in front of the van as I pulled up. As did all our cats. I was inching up as usual then ‘yeow’. Shit. Shit, shit, shit. I got out and my 4-year-old said he ran under the bushes. He wouldn’t come out, and was meowing at me. I saw his leg was hurt so I carried the groceries in, got the kids occupied so I could see about him and how badly he was hurt. When I went back out he was gone. He could barely move when I left him. I looked all over for days. He obviously went deep into the woods behind our house and died. Terrible. I felt so terrible. I still do. It’s a bad feeling to kill a family pet.

My 14-year-old was more upset than the little ones. My youngest daughter said it will be okay if he goes to heaven with Penny. We had just lost our Penny late last year. We had her for 8 years or so. Now, our other cat, Bubbles hasn’t shown up for a few days. I haven’t had him fixed yet so he wanders a bit. I hope he comes back. After Simba died he would stand at the edge of the woods in the back yard and meow. Walk into the woods. Come out and lay down. So sad. They were adopted together. Kept each other warm in the winter. Ran and tumbled and play fought. I don’t think the kids could take losing another cat. God, I’m really depressing myself here.

So back to the staring cat.

I wonder if he was judging me for being a bad cat mother. If he was trying to tell me something. Or if it was Simba- reincarnated for a few minutes watching me through the window.

Ok. Back to listening to Mumford and Sons and Facebooking. I’ve gotten too serious this evening.

Simba and Bubbles