Homeless

Chapter Three

Sunita explains they’re looking for a lost cat named Socrates. He was in a fight and ran off. He was chasing a black, tuxedo cat female. Socrates is hurt. The boy asks if they’re going to take the cats away, and Brenna says no. They just want to find Socrates and go home.

The boy walks to the boxcar and reaches into the open doorway and pulls out two chipped ceramic bowls. He takes a small bag of cat food out of his backpack and empties it into the bowls. The cats run to the boxcar to eat their food. The girl sets the bowl of water on the ground.

Sunita gives the kids her name, and says that if they like the cats, then hopefully they understand why she’s worried. Socrates needs a veterinarian to look at his wounds. The boy says his name is Jamie, and he’ll help them look. But if he’s back in the bushes, they won’t have any luck. He pauses, and then asks if they know how to take care of a hurt cat.

Sunita nods her head, and Jamie looks at the girl. He tells Sunita and the others to follow him, as he leads them to an injured cat lying on a doll’s blanket behind a rusted barrel. The cat’s hind leg is swollen and there’s blood on the fur. Jamie says he was hit by a car. He won’t eat or drink anything. But they can’t get too close because he’s a wild cat. They bite and scratch. Jamie only could move him because the car knocked him out.

Sunita says he has to be taken to the clinic. Jamie says they can use the phone in the house to call for help. Katie will show them the way. Katie and Maggie carefully cross the tracks and head for the house.

Jamie explains that the cats aren’t theirs. They just help take care of them. They use their allowance money to buy food for them. They play with the tame cats out here. But the wild cats bite. Brenna speaks up to say they need to keep looking for Socrates. Brenna and David will start knocking on doors and come back in fifteen minutes.

Jamie asks Sunita to describe the tuxedo cat again. After she does, he says he’s seen her before. They call her Mittens. Then, Katie and Maggie return, followed by a short, angry woman. She says the cats are dangerous, and she told Katie and Jamie to stay away from them. As the woman gets closer, Sunita can see she’s not angry, but afraid. The look on her face reminds Sunita of her own mother.

The woman tells Jamie to take Katie back to the house. Sunita doesn’t understand why they’re sent home. They’re just trying to help the injured cat. The woman checks to make sure her kids are out of hearing range before saying that the neighborhood is upset about the cats. The cats use their gardens as a bathroom and dig in the garbage. There was an old man who used to live a few houses down. He left out food for the cats. After he moved, the cats stayed. And one cat is cute, and two are fun. But suddenly, there’s a jungle of cats around, howling all night. And that’s trouble.

The woman explains she tried calling everyone. The mayor, the city council, the county commissioners. Nobody seems to care. Meanwhile, the cats keep having kittens. Sunita says she can help get them all adopted. The woman smiles sympathetically. Nobody is going to want these cats. They’re wild. They bite, scratch, and have fleas. They’re as bad as the raccoons that live back here. They probably have rabies and other diseases, too. That’s why they need to be gone. And finally, the county is coming tomorrow to take the cats away.

But before the woman can explain more, Jamie calls out there’s a phone call for his mom. She turns to leave, saying that she hopes they find their cat fast. Animal Control comes tomorrow morning.