The Sad Case of Calico the Cat: A Modern Parable

I am going to share this true story as a parable. Or perhaps a metaphor …or an analogy, lol I am not sure which. Most parables are not actually true stories, so I suppose this is more like an analogy. You can read it and tell me which one you think it is.

I found a feral kitten on the highway yesterday. I watched it run half way across the road and almost get run over. It was terrified and hunkering down, trying to hide from the cars.

I felt sorry for it and so pulled my car over and went after it. It hissed and spitted, but I picked it up quickly and luckily did not get bitten or scratched. I looked into its face and it did not look like other cats I am familiar with … it seemed far away and alien. Its eyes were terrified and I almost could see a look of hatred in the eyes … I assume that was just related to the fear of the unknown; and I was the unknown.

I pressed it up close to my chest (near my  heart) and kept it in a firm grip in the hopes that it would not get loose and scratch me. Holding it like that seemed to calm it down. Perhaps it could hear my heart beat.

I brought it home, and because I had no where else, I put it in my room (my trailer) and left it there with some milk. Later, I checked in on it, and it didn't appear that it had touched the milk so I brought it some top quality wet cat food (my other cat, the gato borica is VERY picky!). It hissed and spat every time I tried to get near it. I wanted to pet it, to comfort it but I could not. Its fear would not let me. So after talking soothingly to it, I left it alone.

When I tried to go to bed that night, it was obvious that it had been exploring around my trailer. At one point it even looked at me from a distance and meowed softly like it was asking me for help. But again, when I tried to get close, it hissed and ran under the couch. When I reached my hand down to touch it, it spat at me (I actually nearly wet my pants!).

I finally went to bed, and was almost asleep when it began to cry. It was a high pitched mewing sound but rather than inquisitive, it sound like a 911 distress call. I decided it must be calling for its mother. I laid there, missing Debbie, while Calico was missing her mother. I thought to myself “we have so much in common, we both feel lost without the comforting presence of the one we love.” I tried several times to comfort it but immediately it went back into the hissing and spitting routine. I realized I was not going to get any sleep. I thought to myself, “I would love to pick you up and hold you close to my heart and whisper soothingly to you while comforting you but you will not let me. We could comfort one another.”

I got up to go sleep in the house on my couch … but as I went out the trailer door, I hesitated. After thinking a moment, I left the door slightly ajar. Calico felt trapped by me. I wanted to give her the choice; to stay with me and learn to trust me, or to on what was likely a doomed mission to find her mother.

I had trouble sleeping in the house. At one point I woke up thinking I was hearing Calico’s distress call, but it was only our other Puerto Rican cat scratching on the door. In the morning I went out to the trailer to fix my coffee, and the door was still slightly ajar, exactly as I had left it. For a moment I thought that Calico had decided to take a chance on trust and stay with me but no. She was gone.

I poured some milk in a bowl and left it outside the trailer, thinking if she got into trouble, maybe she would come back.

Does this story remind you of anyone?

Why do we humans have the “gift” of free will? Is it a blessings? or is it really a curse?

I feel sad about Calico. I think we could have been friends.