Homeless

Chapter Seven

The next morning, as Sunita approaches the clinic, she feels as if something is wrong. What is it? The clinic looks normal. What’s missing? Then, Sunita realizes. It’s Socrates. A lump grows in her throat, and she tries to swallow it. They’ll find him that day. They have to.

Once Sunita walks in, she the others are clustered around the reception counter. Dr. Mac is trying to listen to the person on the other end of the telephone. She loudly says that yes, they are missing a cat. Maggie jumps up and down and says that someone found Socrates. Dr. Mac asks what the cat looks like. She nods once, twice. She asks if they’re sure? She’s not smiling anymore. She thanks them for checking, and says it’s not theirs. She hangs up the phone, and Sunita’s heart sinks.

Dr. Mac explains the cat they found is orange, but it’s small, only seven or eight pounds. It has white ears, and it’s female. Dr. Mac says it’s not time to worry yet. They have to get in the van to go.

It’s a quick drive to Dorset Street, the closest road to the railroad tracks. Dr. Mac fills the silence in her car by telling them about the Animal Control officer they’ll be meeting. When they park, they see a tall, slim man wearing a dark green shirt and matching pants leaning over some papers. Dr. Mac gets out of the car to go shake his hand, and the five of them trail behind Dr. Mac. Dr. Mac introduces the officer, named Gary, to Maggie, Zoe, Sunita, Brenna, and David. Gary looks puzzled at the presence of a veterinarian and five sixth-graders.

Gary explains that he didn’t have a chance to check his messages yesterday, so he doesn’t know why Dr. Mac is there. Dr. Mac says that they’re probably there for the same reason: the feral cats. Gary frowns. He says the neighbors are in an uproar. He has to take them out. Dr. Mac calmly explains the TVSR program to Gary. Sunita keeps her fingers crossed behind her back. Hopefully he agrees to it. Dr. Mac said that if he says no, there’s nothing more to be done. As an Animal Control officer, it’s his job to make decisions about the safety of people and animals.

As Dr. Mac finishes her explanation, Gary glances up and down the street. No kids are outside playing. He asks who’s paying for it. The cost of the vaccines, surgery, and medicine will add up. There’s no extra money in his budget. Dr. Mac looks at the kids behind her, and says she won’t charge the county. She’ll do it for free and consider it a contribution to the community. Dr. Mac pulls out a thick binder, and hands it to Gary. She says she put together some information for him. He can read up on it for himself. The studies say that in areas where TVSR is being used, the cat population has slowly decreased and is steady. Towns have reduced their feral cat population by half after running TVSR programs for a few years.

Gary says that if they release the cats back here, the neighborhood association will have his head. Dr. Mac says that if the colony is removed, other feral cats will just take it over. TVSR will work better. The statistics are convincing, but Gary will have to do some educating and have a meeting with the neighborhood. Dr. Mac would be happy to speak to them. Gary flips through the pages of the notebook with a frown. Sunita yelps out that he has to let them try this. The cats need their help. This will save their lives.

Sunita swallows hard. She’s not used to speaking out like this. Gary takes a deep breath, and says that he’s always hated putting these guys to sleep. It’s not their fault. He says they’ll try the program this time, to see if it works. He’ll set up a meeting to explain it to the neighbors. But if it doesn’t work, they have to do it another way.

Gary says that they can use his humane traps. The trap looks like a big cat carrier, but it slides back and forth to hold the caged animal still, squeezing it gently when the vet is trying to give it a shot. He says they’ll have to give the wild animals a sedative before treatment. They can put up a big fuss. Maybe, after they get these cats taken care of, Sunita will design a better trap. She wouldn’t be like being trapped in a metal box and squeezed either.

Gary asks how many they want to trap right now. Dr. Mac says she can handle about six at a time. She brought some smelly tuna to stick inside the traps, too. Maggie says that she’ll start passing out flyers about the meeting with Gary. Sunita says she’ll stay to watch. Maybe she’ll see Socrates.

They cross over to the railroad tracks to get to the colony. It’s deserted, but Sunita can feel the eyes of the cats watching from the tall grass. Sunita can see a curtain move in Jamie’s house, but she can’t see who’s watching. Hopefully, Jamie’s mom goes to Gary’s meeting. Gary and Dr. Mac set up all of the traps. They walk to the opposite side of the clearing and crouch down out of sight. Sunita sits as still as a mouse.

In a few minutes, the cats appear, slinking out of the weeds and out of the boxcar. They can smell the tuna. Sunita recognizes a lot of the cats that appear, but no Socrates. They see the gray cat with a broken tail, and the black-and-white young cats. They circle the traps warily. Sunita thinks they suspect something is wrong. Something brushes by Sunita’s hand. She flicks it to make it go away, and then looks down. And there she is. Mittens, the soon-to-be mom cat that fought with Socrates. Sunita glances around quickly, but there’s no sign of their feisty orange clinic cat. But maybe Socrates will come out if he smells the tuna.

Mittens tilts her black head back and looks Sunita in the eye. It’s as if she knew that Sunita was going to come. Sunita squints. Under her fur is a black flea collar. This means that Mittens isn’t a feral cat after all! She was abandoned. Mittens used to have people who loved her, but now she’s all alone. She’s not wild, she’s domesticated. She wants to live inside and sleep on bedspreads. She’s safe.

Sunita knows Dr. Mac told her not to touch any of the cats, but she can’t help herself. Mittens is probably used to people. Will she let Sunita touch her? Sunita reaches out her fingers slowly until Mittens bumps against her hand. Slowly, Sunita scratches between her ears, and Mittens starts to purr. She rubs the edge of her mouth against her knuckles. Suddenly, there’s a bang. A trap in the clearing swings shut, locking a cat inside. Bang, bang, bang! Three more traps close. Mittens looks around, not sure what to do. The trapped cats howl in outrage, and Mittens runs off before Sunita can stop her.