Annabelle's Story - as written by Joel Schmid

Another great story by my friend, Joel Schmid.  Joel writes stories about the cats on the streets that I feed, and some, closer to home.  I have been feeding, and sheltering on my porch, a Calico cat that has been a neighborhood cat for well over 10 years - I named her Annabelle way back when.   Annabelle would never allow me to get too close to her.  Until one day....

A Guardian Angel - Annabelle's Story

   Some who wander may not want to be found, but once they are found they are never really lost …

Annabelle knew something was wrong when she woke up under a small bush that had recently been set ablaze with bright red and yellow leaves from falls chilly nights.

She could not remember how she had gotten there last night, nor when she had eaten last. Normally she existed fairly well on the free handouts from the humans along Brett Street, and she knew she always had a safe haven from the cold and wet nights on the human female's porch chair - but even that small comfort had been hit-and-miss lately. The human female cared for many cats and kittens, and sometimes Annabelle would pad warily up to the dull metal panel of the porches storm door only to find the square stone that propped it open just wide enough for her was missing and the door closed against her. On days when her hips did not pain her too badly she would rear up and set her front paws delicately on the edge of the divide between the doors metal and glass panels to peer inside. There she would see the latest batch of some poor moms kittens curled up in little balls in a warm human made nest - or occasionally there would be some strange cat staring back at her from inside one of the humans cages. She did not think the human female did any harm to these cats and kittens, and the adult cats were always gone the next day. No smell of fear was ever left behind, so the human female was forgiven this trespass in Annabelle's mind each time it had happened.

She was a true feral - never allowing a human to touch her or handle her - and she was quite proud of this. She tended to look upon other cats she could see in the human houses windows with a bit of disdain, thinking that she would not trade her freedom for a life indoors for anything. She had learned her lesson the hard way. After a joyous few weeks as a young kitten living with humans they had inexplicably moved away and left her behind. The man had set her outside and mumbled something in human-speak, and then had unceremoniously shut the door in her face. She hadn't given it much thought at the time (the flutter of a beautiful white butterfly had distracted her almost instantly that day and the chase was on) but when she had wandered back to the house several hours later there was no response to her plaintive meows and scratching at the door. She had sat there all through the night, waiting for the humans to finally open the door and let her come back inside, but the house had remained resolutely closed. She had given up the next morning and padded away down the street in a huff, vowing to never trust a human again.

That was almost 11 years ago now, and she had remained mostly true to her vow. Although she had found that she did have to rely on humans occasionally - if she wanted to eat and find a shelter from the rain and blustery cold winds of Rochester winters. Luckily she had established a well-worn territory up and down Brett Street, where she could get a meal almost any day of the week and a warm cozy bed in an old chair on the human female's porch at the very end of her street. (Annabelle tended to think of Brett St. as "hers") The human female that provided her shelter always spoke in kind tones to her, and had tried to touch her a few times, but Annabelle bolted any time the human got too close, not willing to trust her benefactor even for a moment. There had been a couple of wandering toms over the years that had entered her territory, yowling their songs of love and lust - but she had never been interested in pursuing them.  In fact she was quite uninterested in tom's altogether (she had been spayed by her family of humans who had so ungraciously abandoned her but had no idea) and didn’t want to roam far from "her street" to go looking for a suitor when she heard them.

Over the last year her back legs and hips had begun to flare with dull aches and pains, growing a little sharper on wet or rainy days. Sometimes when it was very cold and wet at the same time she would wait for the human female to climb into her car and zoom away for the day and then sneak through the door crack to curl up on the old chair. She could watch the fat grey clouds roll by outside the windows of the human's porch, inhaling the heady perfume of the many cats that lived with her. On those days she was appreciative of the comfort those smells gave her, and it was on those days that she came closest to actually liking a human as well. Sometimes she wished she could allow the human to pet her and maybe give her something to eat, but her ingrained habits died hard, and she found herself scurrying out the opening left by the door as soon as the human's car returned later in the afternoon despite her best intentions.

Today she would very much like to retire to the human's porch chair, but she wondered if her failing back legs would be able to carry her. The late October air had a nasty chill in it this morning, and her still working nose could smell the sharp tang of frost that would soon be on the way. She was not the least bit hungry either - another mark in the worrisome column that was adding up fast to become a not so great day for her. She lifted her chin and snuffled the air under the brightly colored bush to see what scents might be out there, deciding after a few minutes to wait a while for the sun to emerge and warm the air enough so her old bones could handle a little walking. She watched a few human cars roll by following their impossibly bright lights, her tail twitching just a little as she waited. After a few minutes she found herself getting sleepy again (lately she seemed to nap at the drop of a hat, something else that had changed recently that she could not account for. She used to be able to patrol Brett Street all night, but now she was lucky if she could stay awake for more than a few hours) and she let herself drift off as she waited for the sun to climb a little higher and warm up the faded street pavement.

She woke again a few hours later, the bright autumn sun now high over her right shoulder and setting every tree along Brett Street on fire in riotous color. She loved the spicy aroma of fall leaves, but dreaded the cold snow that was sure to follow. She could feel the heat from the street pavement radiating toward her, so she decided she might as well get up and see if she could make it down to the human female's porch. By now the human would have zoomed off in her car, and hopefully the porch door would be open to her. She pushed herself to her feet, feeling the familiar pain in her hips and joints. Today felt like it was going to be a bad one, and she hoped she could make it that far. Maybe today would be a good day to allow the human to touch her, to comfort her as she had wanted so many times in the past. She thought her time might soon be drawing to a close, and she wanted to test a human's trust just once more before she passed, to see if they could redeem themselves just a little in her jaded heart.

She padded carefully out from under the bush, over a short patch of grass in front of a trim and tidy humans house, and onto the shoulder of the sun-warmed pavement. Her gait was unsteady and wobbly, but she kept her head high and locked her gaze on the far end of the street where she knew the human's porch awaited her. She could smell the scents emanating from the humans road just like always - a strange mixture of old stones, sticky tar, and a fine dusting of rubber particles left by the cars round feet as they hurried along to who-knows-where. She plodded along for a short distance, ignoring the pain from her back legs, but soon she found herself stopping and sitting awkwardly to relieve the ache that had settled into the base of her tail. She eyed the distant end of the street, trying to judge how long it might take her to reach it. A few human cars rolled noisily passed, swerving slightly to avoid her. Normally she would have stuck to the thin stone curb to stay off the actual pavement, but today she found she did not care if she was too close to the big metal monsters the humans moved around in.

After a brief rest she again heaved herself to her feet, but this time the pain from her hips was immediate and sharp, nearly forcing her to sit again. She willed herself to walk in as straight a line as she could anyway, and managed a few more cat lengths (cats measured things in their own terms - like cat lengths or tail lengths) before having to sit again. She waited a few minutes more and this time when she tried to stand up she was dismayed to find that she couldn't. Instead she sank onto her belly, the warm heat of the road soaking into her fur and giving at least some relief to the anguish that had replaced her once strong and flexible hips. She decided she would wait a while for the soothing heat from the road to ease her soreness before attempting to move again. She looked around warily, knowing full well how exposed and vulnerable she was out here along the edge of the street and the curb. All it would take was a careless human in a car to flatten her like she had seen happen to other hapless animals in the past. Minutes crept past as she watched the shadows from a nearby tree crawl across the sunlit pavement around her.

Fortunately for her, a kind hearted human who actually knew of her habits and had seen her patrolling the neighborhood had spotted her plight and were preparing to take action.

She heard the creak and slam of a human's house door, and swiveled her head in that direction to see who was coming out. Would she have to try and flee or was she safe just lying along the roads curb stones ? She saw a human female emerge from the house directly opposite her position along the curb (but it was not the one who gave her shelter in the old chair down the street) and walk toward her. She felt her instincts ramping up to urge her to run, but the pain was still too sharp, so instead she flattened herself down as close to the roads pavement as possible. As she watched the human approach, she was even further alarmed to see that the women was carrying one of the cages like the human female down at the end of the street used to hold the adult cats she had seen from time to time staying overnight on the porch. She meowed her most urgent plea she could muster to ask this human to just leave her alone, but the women kept on coming toward her. The woman was making soothing noises in human-speak, but Annabelle could not understand a word of it. She wished humans could speak cat, and she had often wondered why they never did, since they could do so many other amazing and seemingly magical things. She watched warily as the human set the cage down gently by the side of the curb and squatted down close to her, making more of those soothing noises.

By now Annabelle was frightened and a little panicky. She had no idea what this human had in store for her, but she naturally assumed it wasn't good. However she still could not force herself to her feet, so she settled for some self-defense hissing as well as barring her age-yellowed teeth instead. The women did not seem very intimidated however, so Annabelle decided to save her strength and after a few moments stopped hissing and lay quietly, now resigned to whatever this human would do.

But instead of a swat or a kick, the women lifted her gently off the warm road pavement and placed her inside the cage through an opening at the top onto a soft human piece of cloth. Annabelle watched the humans hands lift up and away from her, and the top of the cage was closed with her trapped inside. She could still see out through the bars, and watched as she was lifted and carried down the street in the original direction she had wanted to go - toward the house with the porch at the end of Brett Street. She felt a little better seeing the end of the street drawing closer - maybe this human would deliver her onto the porch where she could rest in peace before deciding what to do next. She felt so tired now after her most recent ordeals this morning, and wanted nothing more than the sweet release of a cozy nap on the old chair. As the porch house grew closer, she could see the black car the human rode in resting in the short section of road it sat on when the human was not using it. That must mean the human female was home today and if the women who was carrying her really did intend to bring her there she would be meeting the human face to face. She felt her heart quicken with just a touch of worry at the thought of this, despite the drowsiness that was trying to cover her like a thick blanket of leaves.

After several minutes the women carrying her little cage arrived at the end of Brett Street and crossed over to the little white and brick house were Annabelle's porch refuge was attached. The women climbed the few steps that led up to the porch and pushed the creaky metal door open to carry her inside. Annabelle inhaled the old familiar mix of the many cat scents that always emanated from the porch, but this time she was carried straight up to the next door that opened into the human females house while the women who had trapped her rapped loudly on its wooden surface. Soon Annabelle herd the sound of approaching human footsteps. She watched as the wooden door opened and there staring back at her was the human female who had been providing her shelter for most of her life. She could not decide if she should meow in gratitude or hiss in defense, so she ended up purring instead, something that she had not done in a very long time.

She listened warily from inside her cage as the two human women began talking to each other in human-speak and even though she could not comprehend a word of it she assumed they were discussing her and likely what they would do with her. She hoped they would maybe just release her on the porch here, so she could crawl up into the old chair (she could see it there by the porch windows, its old inviting blanket still in place) and just relax for a while. The women who had placed her in the cage set her down on the short fuzzy green surface that made up the ground on the humans porch, spoke to the human who lived at the porch house for a few more seconds, then turned and walked back out the creaky metal door and down the short steps back onto Brett Street.

Annabelle turned her head back to the owner of this human house and found herself looking right into the eyes of the human. She had never been this close before, and never been immobilized like she was now. The human did not look cruel or mean, instead she looked kind and maybe worried. Annabelle was starting to think she may have misjudged this human over all the past years, and felt a little sorry for it now that she was so tired and in pain. The women made some comforting noises and walked back through the door inside the house. She returned shortly wearing a light coat and she had something on to cover her feet. She picked Annabelle's cage up and carried her out to the little black car. It looked like Annabelle was going to finally get to experience first-hand what it was like to zoom off in that car this morning. The women placed her gently on the front seat opposite the controls for the car and then walked around to the opposite side and climbed in herself, making more comforting noises in Annabelle's direction. The human turned something next to a wheel sticking out of the cars controls and she heard an engine start up as well as felt a slight vibration under her little cage. She meowed at the women, asking her where she was taking her and why, but the women just kept making the same noises as she worked a lever between the two front seats in the car and started it moving.

For the next little while Annabelle waited patiently while the car moved along - sometimes faster and sometimes slowing down. After what seemed like a long time the car came to a final stop and the women made a few more comforting sounds toward her while she opened the door and got out. She walked around to Annabelle's side and carefully lifted her cage off the seat. The women carried her inside another one of the human's buildings. Here the heady mix of animal scents was much stronger than the ones from the women's porch. Most were dogs, but there were a few cat smells mixed in. Her cage was set down on the floor for a few minutes, and she listened carefully to the soft mummer of human voices as she waited. She felt herself becoming drowsy again, despite the strange new building and the pain from her hips.  Soon she was brought inside another room in the humans building, and a male human carefully removed her from the metal cage. She thought about trying to run then, but she knew she wouldn’t get far in her current shape, so she had to settle for some hissing and growling instead. The human man gently poked and prodded her, looking in her eyes and inside her mouth - all the while conversing with the women in soft voices. She wished she knew what they were saying. What were they going to do with her ? Would they ever let her go ? Now the human male was wrapping her in another warm towel - this one actually felt good. She felt a sharp sting on her neck, and she felt herself hiss again involuntarily.

After a few minutes she felt herself getting sleepy again. This time she just let herself succumb. She slipped her eyes closed and followed the fading darkness down deeper, away from all this pain and strange human smells. She just hoped the next time she woke up she would be back on the old familiar chair on the warm sunny porch ….

For Annabelle - whom I met a few times as she darted out the door as I was coming in to drop something off to help Janine in her efforts. I'm glad she was able to offer you a safe place to relax from your wanderings and I hope you don’t look upon us humans to harshly from your new comfy chair in heaven ….

Joel Schmid