Get Back, Honky Cat

The next few days are a little dicey.

Trinket has all the hallmarks of a stray. Most remarkable to me is her posture when she sleeps. She is crouched and resting, but on her feet, ready to run at any second should danger come near. It is hardly relaxed.

She is not friendly. She hides in the basement often. Sometimes in the rafters and recesses of the walls, sometimes in things like an Easter basket, six-pack sized cooler or a pile of winter coats. She will not make a sound and instead will let you look all over the damn place, which I believe I’ve described as Sanford and Son East, presumably chuckling her little kitty chuckle while you make little kissy noises and try to lure her out by shaking the box of Friskies. (Don’t laugh! It worked for my cat as a kid!)

She eats nothing. And I mean nothing. But she does get enormously curious about what goes on at the dining room table.

On Tuesday, Scott joins us for dinner. I have made pork chops that I’ve braised and then poached in barbecue sauce, apple sauce and a little brown sugar. I’ve also made baked beans and salad. Hil has set the table with martini glasses and candles, ever the romantic.

Scott is concerned about Trinket too. (Animal lover, through and through) After dinner, he takes a few scraps of meat from the fatty edges he’s carved from his chops and places them on the floor.

Trinket is transformed! She bounds over to the scraps and scarfs them down. I have one remaining chop and some scraps left by the kids (not a crumb left on my plate, natch) and begin to chop them up in to manageable pieces.

Trinket is purring and rubbing up against my legs as I stand at the counter. She is stretched up on her hind legs with one paw against the door of the dishwasher (the stainless steel is going to take a beating with this cat) and has one paw free and poised to swat at anything the gets loose.

When I stoop to place the meat on her plate, she places on paw on my wrist and digs in ever so slightly with her claws. She is holding my hand in place so she can take the food from my fingers!

It is a sight to behold. She eats until she is full. It didn’t take long, her poor little tummy is so shrunken with starvation.

She is purring and affectionate and becomes all snoozy with the fullness of her little belly.

Maybe Trinket is realizing that now she has People. And maybe, these people will love her enough to figure out what it is that she likes and what it is that she needs, and get them for her.

She climbs onto a pillow, curls up with her paw and tail across her tiny little face and sleeps. Finally, she sleeps in a position of true relaxation. I think she’s realized she is Home.