Member-only story
Photos 081
all content ©2022 J.R. Schaefers unless otherwise credited
gross-out warning: photos of a cat eating a mouse
I used to work late shifts. For one week, a cat I’d never seen at my apartment complex came scratching at my door soon after I returned home. I let her in and fed her whatever I had on hand. She would tour the apartment and then wander toward the door to be let out again.
I began looking forward to her visits and saved scraps of food from my job to bring home and serve to my new friend.
One afternoon on my day off, I woke up and heard the cat scratching and meowing. I found her on the doormat with a dead mouse. The moment I sat down in the doorway she ate it head-first. It was like she was waiting for me.
She chilled on my porch for an hour and refused to be intimidated by the apartment complex’s resident jerk-cat, Otis (the fat black and white cat in the final photo below — that horrible bastard killed so many sparrows and chickadees — one bird he mauled died in my hands and I’ll never forget the last shiver as its broken body struggled and failed to pull in another breath).
I wanted this Mystery Kitty to depose Otis and take over the apartment complex, but she hit the road and I never saw her again. I know she would have been a kind and just ruler, chasing mice and sparing the birds.
