Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Hope and some Serendipity

A little before the Twins game was to start tonight, I went out to feed the dumpster kitties. I have gotten into the habit of going right around dusk. I can still see but there are few people out and about to see me (and possibly judge me). Right as I was approaching the dumpster, I noticed a woman in a white car parked in the last space before the driveway to the dumpster.

One of my favorite kitties ran out from behind the dumpster to greet me (always from a distance) and one of the new babies was back there. I dumped out my Ziploc freezer bag full of food and crossed my arms while I watched them peek out from the woods behind the dumpster.

"Hi." She scared the piss out of me. I whirled around and was instantly nervous. Does she live in the complex? Is she going to yell at me for encouraging this? I couldn't tell how old she was. My age give or take five years. I'm bad at that. She was wearing shorts, a t-shirt, flip flops and had long blond hair loosely piled up under a nondescript baseball cap.

"Oh, um, hi," I finally returned.

"Do you feed these cats?"

"Yes...." I answered somewhat defensively.

She appeared relieved. "Oh, I'm so happy somebody is feeding these guys. I've come by here a couple times and noticed them. Have they been trapped and fixed?"

"No. I've looked into it, but it's a little overwhelming."

We contined to talk for maybe ten minutes. It turns out she feeds feral cat colonies in my neighborhood and happened across "mine" a few days ago. She staked it out to se if they were being cared for. She also routinely traps feral cats and takes them to a clinic that charges her a very small fee to fix them. She then offered to coordinate with me and help me trap my dumpster kitties to take them in to be spayed and neutered. I looked her over once again and decided she appeared "normal". Now let me just say that I don't normally judge people based on appearances but when I meet a complete stranger behind a dumpster that wants to have continual communication with me, I must be wary and make haste judgements at the risk of being discriminatory. She wore makeup and seemed well kept, completely unlike the Crazy Cat Lady from the Simpsons. I decided to ask her for her phone number, still undecided about giving her mine. Even though she appeared normal, there was still a possibility she could go postal and call me 20 times a day about crazy cat stuff.

I followed her to her car where she asked me if I was a student. I told her I was a grad student, prompting the inevitable question about what I was studying. When I told her physics she got a stunned look on her face. She asked me if I knew Sue, our office manager that passed away nearly two months ago. I told her I knew Sue well, and at once I recognized her as a speaker at Sue's service. Sue was her aunt and they were very close. Suddenly, I trusted this woman and knew that I wanted her to help me do this. I've been talking about "doing something about the kitties" for awhile, and completely by coincidence this situation finds me.

I never really thought of the dumpsters kitties as stressing me out. It's more like a hobby. But there are days when I see them all at once and feel extremely overwhelmed. And small. Now, with the connection I made I feel an immense weight already beginning to lift from my shoulders. This is a chance for me to do something good.

10 comments:

Runner Girl FL said...

That's MB Saving the world...one kitten at a time. It does speek volumes that Sue is her aunt. Sue always fed the cats outside the physics building.

Scott said...

That's a really cool story. I wonder if she knows Kevin Bacon?

(If you don't get the joke, then explaining it won't make it funny)

Jackie said...

That's awsome!! I'm so happy, and can't wait for the "we tried to trap the cats" story.

Natalie said...

rg~
Now it's MB saving the world one CAT at a time so there's no more KITTENS!

scott~
I get the joke and I thought it was funny. I was randomly surfing the blogosphere the other day and happened upon a blog buddy commenting on another site. It totally took me by surprise, I didn't get to that site through links. It got me wondering about a 6 degrees of blogging. That would be an interesting experiment if I had some time off.

jackie~
Lordy, I'm sure there will be plenty of those. I'm not kidding myself, it won't be easy and I'll be grateful for the help!

brainhell said...

Nice, nice, very nice. So many people in the same device.

Fix those kitties! Hooah!

Natalie said...

BH~
Fix those kitties! Hooah!

dad~
You're right, I did not know that. Strange. Be sure to tell grandma about this. As many times as it takes.

Big Feet said...

I think that it's great that you're doing that, and that you have someone to help! YaY for kindness to animals!

Scott said...

You see? I was all over it! That is too funny.

Anonymous said...

aren't you just one degree away from TWO crazy cat ladies?

Jenn Siva said...

The world is such a small place!