Miss Annie

Some time in late autumn, I noticed a previously unseen cat hanging around the drive we share with our neighbors. Most of the time the cat spent time in their garage. As I left for work one morning, I noticed some of our dishes out along the drive, one with cat food and one with water...Apparently Jim had seen the cat too.
On a couple of occasions I was able to coax the kitty over, tapping the ground and calling. She would slowly and cautiously walk over and allow me to pet her but never stayed long. The only "identification" she had was a flee collar.
A week or so went by and our neighbor and I were out at the same time. She said, "Have you seen our new cat?" I said I had. She went on to say that they would provide food and shelter in their garage, but the cat would not be permitted inside. Hmmm.
One very cold, windy early November day I couldn't help but think of the little cat outside, all alone. I went over to the garage (the door is always left open) and found the cat lying on top of a mattress, the wind blowing her fur, which had become dirty. It was at that moment I decided to commit cat burglary. I coaxed her down from the mattress by offering honey ham, all the while expecting the neighbors to pull up and find me mid-theft. They did not, and I was able to bring the cat inside and down the basement, shutting the door to keep the other animals away. I quickly discovered that her flee collar was doing nothing- lots of little flees had taken up residence. I could also tell that this cat, wherever she had come from, was not an outside cat. She just didn't have the coat to withstand the winter weather. Feeling just a little guilty, I called Jim to confess my deed, knowing he would say what he did: "Good!"
I fretted about how to hide her from the neighbors, as they would see her in the window. But I also didn't know how to explain that I had stolen their cat. They returned home later that day, and I knocked on their back door. I said that I had been worried about the cat being outside and had put her in our basement...and they were thrilled! Turns out they really didn't want her to begin with. And so we headed to the vet and checked for a microchip. (I was hoping we may have found a lost friend who could be returned to her owner.) There was no chip and no postings at any of the local sites describing this little girl, who I decided should be called Annie. She is small and there was no doubt that she was a little girl, who needed a feminine name. In the last couple of months, Annie has been defloused, immunized, and spayed. In between, she has found her place at home and is a loved member at the Schneider Animal Cottage.