YOU SEE... I'M NOT A 'CAT' PERSON...

YOU SEE.... I'M NOT A 'CAT' PERSON...

BY GLORIA FAYE BROWN BATES/ aka GRANNY GEE

I'm sitting here thinking about yesterday as I sip on hot coffee, and drink my glass of orange juice all along. Those two flavors are good together. Skip insists that I always have orange juice every morning, it's become a habit with me through the years.

I keep feeling like I'm supposed to be somewhere, that I need to get up and go. If it was like before yesterday... I would 'have to be somewhere'.... that 'somewhere' would be where I've had to go for the past fourteen months.

We moved fourteen months ago to a new home. During those fourteen months we couldn't just not go back to care for the 8 feral cats we grew to know at the old place. Faithfully.... every day of the month ... for fourteen months we have gone there to take food for them, and a gallon of water.

We noticed for the past week that someone had begun putting pet bowls out on an old camper to feed the cats. I can't tell you how happy that made us... someone has purchased that property, and they... love cats. They saw these cats and... cared.

I hope it is the couple I met sometime ago... they were there looking at the property, and they saw me feeding the cats. They talked to me and I was telling them how those particular cats killed the many snakes up there (there are many beautiful rocks up there... it's like being in the mountains). They also, kill mice. The woman told me how she and her family loved cats... in my mind I prayed they'd be the people to buy the property.

You see... I'm not a 'cat' person... no matter, I became attached to those cats. They were wild, and I was careful to let them 'stay as they were' while we lived there for 6 years after we lost our home to a fire.

I loved those cats with my very heart, so... did Skip. So... did our Sweet Chadwick. He would protect them when they would come to visit him... because our 11 year old Rottweiler... Mr. Fairchild... hated them, he would run at such a speed you'd never believe a big dog can run... he would kill a cat.

Truthfully, you'd be amazed at how fast a Rottweiler can run... no one would have a chance to outrun them. I have always thought Sweet Chadwick was the fastest dog I've ever seen personally... but, Mr. Fairchild and our one year old Kissy Fairchild (named after Mr. Fairchild) are close behind in their speed.

We never missed even one day making sure those cats were fed, watered. Yesterday, I went as usual to feed them. I came to the driveway and pulled in, stopped to look at the nice posts that'd been placed on either side of the driveway... at the new cable with a lock in it... attached to both posts. I looked to the right and saw... that the 'For Sale' sign was gone.

Do you know what? I just sat there while my mind registered the changes. I felt relief 'wash all over me'... I began taking deep breaths because seeing the posts, cable, lock.............. made me become aware of something. It's time to 'let go' again in my life. Something I'd done for so long ...has just come to 'the end'... again.

I sat there, tears came to my eyes and I felt that 'squeeze' in my heart... I was sad but.... I felt the glimmer of happiness ... you know how the sunshine does on a cloudy day... you know 'it's there' ... just behind those clouds.. you feel it more than 'see' it!

As I sat there, I began to smile ... it's time for me to go forward from here now. I realized as I drove up the road that both Skip and I had accepted in our minds a long time ago that we would feed those cats 'forever'... and 'forever'... had come. Someone else has begun 'carrying the torch'. It was taken out of my hands when I saw the posts, cable, and lock. They said to me 'it's time for you to go now... let go... don't look back, go forward'.

I tell you all this because my mom would have been so proud of me, us. She was a for-real 'cat lover'... in fact, my mother loved cats too much and they took over a big part of her life in a .. negative way. I remember 'how against cats'... I was when I moved back here and saw that. I just automatically 'despised' cats. Who would have ever thought that I would have cared with my very heart for 8 feral cats, enough to feed and water them for fourteen months. Both Skip and I were faithful, always.

These cats couldn't come with us as they 'were a part of there'. They wouldn't have tolerated us trying to catch them. While we lived there we fed, watered them. We didn't encourage them getting too close, I didn't want them to do that and lose their survival skills. I'm so thankful I felt that way, now.

I am a 'dog' person but, I grew to love those cats. I felt protective of them... I always thought if my mother was alive... she'd been amazed at me. She wouldn't have believed what I felt in my heart for those cats, much less to faithfully feed them that long, not abandon them.

I sit here this morning 'feeling lost'... thinking 'I have to go feed the cats'... I sit here with both sadness, happiness in my heart. I'm so thankful I saw the signs of care, love for those cats up there... you see, I'm not a 'cat' person.