Not so Joyful

Turtle is our anti social cat. She has been that way since we brought her home from the pound. She doesn't like anyone except my husband, and she only tolerates me because she can count on me to feed her. About a month ago she disappeared. At first I wasn't too worried, and really I didn't care much. But as the third day went by, I was a little concerned that I hadn't seen her on my kitchen window sill asking to be fed. The next day as I was putting some groceries in the garage I heard a muffled "meow." I looked around the garage trying to figure out where she was when it dawned on me. The attic. That cat follows you up the attic stairs if you aren't paying attention, and my husband had been up there 4 days ago and I am sure he wasn't paying attention to the ladder climbing cat. I pulled down the door and ladder and she popped her little head out and meowed at me like she was cussing. I had to help her down, because she doesn’t know how to climb down the ladder, and went inside to get her food and water.


I was in the process of getting the kids ready to take Big Brother to school and opened the garage door so that I could warm up the van. Well, Turtle ran for her life. It's not like I locked her in the attic on purpose, but that didn't really matter to her. This time I was worried as the weather was expected to get into the teens for the next few nights, but I thought she would come back in the morning. She didn't. Two weeks went by without a single sighting. I didn't contact the pound as she has a chip and they would have contacted me, I really just assumed she had curled up somewhere and froze.

The kids and I went to Amarillo. While we were there, my husband was out in the neighborhood with our dog when this lady asked if he knew who owned the cat in her photo. It was Turtle. She had taken Turtle in when the weather got cold, and was now looking for the owner's because Turtle "attacks" her sick cat. Knowing Turtle, she probably just hisses at the thing, but whatever. Alex left the cat retrieval up to me as he was leaving for work and I was due home in a couple of days. When I got home "Joyful" (that's what I'll call our neighbor) wasted no time in coming to find me. As a matter of fact, she was at my neighbor’s house talking to her when she saw me pull into the garage. She dutifully knocked on the garage door until I opened it again.

This was my first time to meet Joyful, and she seemed ok, but there was something my gut felt the moment I saw her and I just couldn't put my finger on it. I explained the cat in the attic incident and the disappearance, she explained taking her in and her sick cat, and so on. She wanted to know if we "sincerely" wanted to keep her or if we were going to find her a new home. Well, I don't really care either way, but I didn't say that. I explained that I would like to see if she would come home again, and that if that didn't work I would try to find a "no kill" shelter. She immediately responded that "those don't exist." I replied that they do, and we agreed that she would stop feeding Turtle to see if she would come back home. Two days went by and she finally showed herself on the windowsill for food. I put her in the garage, and gave her food and left to take the kids to school. She stayed the remainder of the day, and left sometime before night fall. She never came back.

A week has gone by, and today I was in the driveway cleaning the van, when Joyful pulled in. I went up to her fully prepared to talk about Turtle. She said Turtle was still at her house and she had slammed her finger in her fence trying to get Turtle away from her sick cat. She then asked if I had the found cat sign she had put out. I retrieved it from the truck and wiped the dirt off of it and gave it to her. She said something else to me, but the scowl on her face had me a little on guard and I don't remember what she said. I then heard a distinct "shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" coming from the van and deduced that Little Brother was in there helping me clean with the pledge that I had left unattended. I pulled him out of the van and wiped up the oil slick of pledge and tossed the can and towel into the vines next to me. Joyful said "I don't mean to bother you" and I said "that's ok" as I waved off the van. "That's not what I mean; do you have the metal piece that goes to the bottom of my sign?"

I am sure the expression on my face showed just how pissed off I was. I looked in the truck with no luck only to find that she had exited her car and was now sauntering towards my garage to take a look for herself. I stopped her by saying that if my husband had put it in the garage I would know. She then informed me that she didn't give my husband permission to take her sign, and that they cost her 8 dollars apiece. (My husband tells me that she was present when he picked up the sign and that she said she didn't care) This was the beginning of the confrontation. Joyful began asking questions about if my garage was open and if Turtle could even get in, and where is the food for her and how is she supposed to get in because "you didn't put her collar on her." I literally said, "Whoa, stop right there! How dare you come into my drive, and begin to judge me as if I have been irresponsible in this situation." She said, "You have been irresponsible. I called the pound, and you are wrong, they do kill them." I explained that I was not talking about the pound I was referring to the Humane Society or the SPCA and at this point I had had enough.

"You do not get to come to my house, in front of my children and begin accusing me of being irresponsible in a situation that was created by you. YOU are the one that has made the choice to feed my cat continuously. YOU decided to take her in instead of taking her to the pound, where they would have found out we are the owners because of the chip, and you are the one who continues to feed her despite the agreement we had." She began to get teary eyed, but I didn't care. She did this in front of my boys and I was pissed off more that I have been in a long time. I told her I had to go get my daughter from school, and after that I would be by to get Turtle. She said, "I don't want you to come on my property." I said, "Oh, you don't get to pull that one, Joyful. As a matter of fact before you go, let me write you a check for that 8 dollars." She said, "I won't cash it"

"I don't care if you cash it or not, at least you can't say we didn't cover it" She got in her car to leave, as I ushered my kids into the van. I told her I was coming right now to get the cat. I back out and followed her around the block. I don't know why she drove past her house, but we live in a bunch of cul-de-sacs, so I turned around and parked in front of her driveway. I marched my mad butt back to her fence and got Turtle. As I got back into the van she said, you aren't going to take you to the pound are you. I told her not to worry about it. She said, "I don't want her to get killed" and I told her she would be just fine. I took Turtle back to the house and locked you in the cat carrier in the garage and left to get Big Sister from school. I was now 20 minutes past my leave time.

As I drove I tried to turn this into a learning experience for Big Brother. I explained that it was a confrontation and that as he saw, it is important to speak clearly and to explain your point of view without losing your temper. Blah Blah Blah. I saw some election signs with the metal posts that Joyful had been referring to so I stopped to pick one up. I was still fuming as I yanked the thing out of the yard and turned to get into the van. "Did he win already?" The guy across the street yelled at me. I smiled a little panicked at the situation and said, "Not yet, just need this in another yard." Got in and shut the door. Big Brother asked me what the sign was. I explained it had the piece I needed for the "old lady" who was just at our house. He then said, "Mom that's stealing."

Well, there is no way to justify it. He was right. I explained that I was mad, and that I made a bad choice because of it. I asked what he thought I should do about it. He said "take it back" and I told him he was right. So, after getting Big Sister from school I took the sign back. I was fully prepared to own up to the guy across the street but he wasn't there. I made sure Big Brother saw what I did. I told him I was sorry. It's funny how sometimes in taking the "high road" you can end up with a little bird poop in your face.