RIP, Girlfriend

I'm long overdue for posting about my recent cruise to the Caribbean. I will. First, I need to catch you up on some news since I arrived back on dry land. The day I came home and approached my apartment building with luggage in hand, I ran into my building's porter walking one of the tenant's dogs. When I waved hello, he said, "Anne, your cat is outside. It's been outside for five days."

WHAT???

I ran downstairs to the basement and out the backdoor to the courtyard which is encircled by adjacent apartment buildings, and there was a huge fat grey cat with one ear sitting near the garbage shed. I sighed with relief: not my cat. "King" has one ear and is SO friendly, he would have let me take him anywhere. Obviously an abandoned house cat to be so sociable. Then I noticed another kitty inside the garbage shed itself---a Doodle look-a-like--and that one, King's "girlfriend" (it turned out later that Girlfriend had balls), was what you'd call a loner, a classic stray cat who was not interested in being friends with me. But he was friends with King, and these two have been bopping around together like feline hobos for a few weeks, so I've been feeding them with the hopes of getting one or both of them off of the street and into a shelter.

I haven't seen King in over a week, but when I'd go to refill the food and water bowls late at night, I'd see Girlfriend sitting on a high wall, checking me out in the dark. I saw him the night before last. This morning, the doorman broke the news to me that a cat was found dead on the sidewalk in front of my building. He was hit by a car sometime before dawn. "What cat? Striped or grey?"

"I don't know," said Khalid. "He's in a double garbage bag in the courtyard right now."

I ran downstairs and opened the first bag. Then the second. I peered inside.

It was Girlfriend.

RIP, Girlfriend.


PS Please click here to feed an animal in need (it's free) in Girlfriend's memory.