Connor Part Three

as told by author, Joel Schmid...

A Guardian Angel Chapter 7 - Connors Story

  

…We are following the beautiful all black cat Connor's fortunate rescue by Janine after she noticed he was having trouble eating and was drooling excessively …

  

     Connor chewed the moist and meaty food as gingerly as he could, but he still felt intense pain every time he had to use his tongue, forcing him to keep his mouth slightly open as he chewed. But doing that was a problem - he could feel himself leaking drool from around his lower jaw like a big sloppy dog. He knew the human must be seeing his predicament, and wondered if there was something that could be done to help him. He knew that humans were very good at building things, and operating complex machines like cars - could they also be good at curing sick or injured animals? He had heard rumors from a few of the street cats around town that this human would sometimes trap cats, take them away from the streets, and then bring them back after a few days miraculously cured of their ailments. Some of them even came back finally rid of all those annoying fleas and ticks. He had always sort of scoffed at those tales, but he had to admit he was experiencing one of these wild stories himself right now. Would this human be able to cure him as well? He managed a few more bites before the pain from his tongue forced him to stop, so he sat back and just watched the human to see what she would do next.

After a few more encouraging sounds the human turned and left the poo-pee room, closing the door behind her. Connor was left alone, but at least he was free of the confines of the little plastic cage. He wandered around the small poo-pee room, sniffing everything closely to get a feel for what living in a human’s home might be like. As he inhaled, he passed the scents over his highly sensitive Jacobsen's organ (a special spot inside his nasal cavity that let him pick out very small amounts of a particular scent) and was amazed at the number of individual cat scents he could detect. A few of them were even slightly familiar. He could not exactly remember which cat they belonged with, but he felt a little more relaxed knowing this human must have been helping some of his fellow street cats instead of chasing or kicking them like so many he had seen in the past.

After what seemed a long time the human female came back up the stairs and gently placed him back in the plastic cage - he was a little sleepy so he didn’t try to hide or fight her. She carried him back downstairs and back out to a newer and smaller car, the frigid air woke him back to full alertness and he waited nervously as the car started up and moved rapidly along more bumpy roads. After a short ride the car stopped and the human brought him inside another strange building that was full of other animals he had never smelled together in one place before - cats, dogs, birds, and a few he could not identify (like ferrets, Guinea pigs, and rabbits) He heard the human female talking to a few other humans, and after a short wait she carried his plastic enclosure into another small but brightly lit room. A human male was looking at him closely, and while he was busy watching what the man was doing he felt a sharp little sting at the top of his neck. He hissed a little in surprise, but soon he was feeling sleepy again - very sleepy, and found himself drifting off despite his new scary environment.

While he slept, the man gave him a thorough examination, including his mouth and under his tongue. The man removed two tumors that were growing there (a result of eating garbage laced with nasty chemicals in his younger days) as well as ridding his skin of all the fleas and ticks that were causing his beautiful jet black coat to appear patchy and balding. When he awoke in the humans plastic enclosure his mouth felt numb and cold, but his tongue seemed better - it felt less swollen and lay more naturally between the teeth in his lower jaw. Did the human man fix his mouth? Oh wouldn’t that be wonderful! He hoped it was true. It felt like his poor tongue had hurt for days and days. He still felt sleepy so he dozed off again, waking up sometime later in the human females newer car as she sped along a smooth road for a while before once again stopping and carrying him past the other cats that lived with her and up the long set of stairs. She brought him back to the poo-pee room again where he stayed for the next few days. His tongue hurt fiercely at first, and he was afraid that he would never be cured, but then it began to gradually feel better and better each day. The human brought him fresh food and water throughout the next week and by the time he was brought to another new human house he was feeling almost like his old self. One thing that had changed however was his attitude toward humans. He had lost a lot of his resentment and fear of them, and had begun to trust and dare he say it - like them. He watched longingly as the first human female patted him briefly on top of his head before leaving him at a new human’s house - hoping this new one would be as nice as her. It turned out she was.

After a few days of being confined in the new human’s poo-pee room, he was allowed to roam her whole house. At first he stayed hidden as much as possible, but gradually he came out to see what she was up to more and more, and he even allowed her to touch him from time to time. This seemed to make the human very happy, which in turn made him feel more at ease in his weird new living conditions. By now his mouth and tongue had stopped hurting altogether, and the bald patches in his beautiful coat began to fill in making him look like a brand new cat. He would look at himself occasionally in the reflecting square in the human’s poo-pee room and marvel at how he could see himself in it, and wondered if the first human female was rescuing more of his street brothers and sisters just as she had done for him. He hoped for their sake she was …

To be continued …