Homeless
Chapter Ten
Vicious, wild cat… vicious, wild cat. The reporter’s words echo through Sunita’s head. In her nightmare, she’s trapped among angry, six-foot cats, unable to escape no matter where she runs. She becomes the cat, sprinting toward a dark cave, and swerves inside just as the trap door slams shut. They got her. She mews as loud as she can, calling for rescue.
The sound of meowing wakes her. Sunita sits straight up in bed. It’s her, making the noise. What a strange dream.
Mother taps on the door and offers to bring soup, but Sunita says she’s slept enough and will go downstairs instead. The dream still feels vivid. Mother kisses her forehead and heads down to get food ready.
Sunita’s shoulders ache from the injections, and her hand throbs. She wishes she could get dressed with her eyes closed, since cats are everywhere in her room, on posters, books, and her screensaver, each reminding her of the dream and the trapped feeling. Is that how cats feel when they’re caught and taken away? Is that how Tiger felt, and why he bit her? It gives her shivers.
Sunita’s friends from Dr. Mac’s Place visit after lunch, and David bursts in, excited that she made the newspaper. Sunita mutes the ice skating competition she was watching and says she read it. The headline was “RABIES SCARE,” and seeing it at breakfast had killed her appetite. The girls talk with Mother while Sunita’s five-year-old twin siblings hide in the kitchen.
Sunita asks if anyone’s heard about Socrates. Brenna says no, though they searched again that morning with no luck. He’ll turn up. Maggie says Gran is getting worried since he’s never been gone this long. Someone could have taken him in, could be sick, or been hit by a—
Sunita cuts her off. She insists Socrates is coming back, and Brenna agrees. Zoe asks about the hospital trip.
Sunita describes the emergency room, downplaying the shots, but Mother calls it serious and keeps her home from school for a few days. Sunita thinks that’s silly, but her parents decided on the drive home, and Mother isn’t sure she’ll be allowed back at the clinic.
Sunita asks about Tiger and the other cats from the railroad tracks. Maggie grins; they’re loud. Gran and Dr. Gabe operated on all of them last night, and by breakfast they were howling, Sherlock Holmes outdoing them all. Sunita smiles at the thought of Maggie’s basset hound surrounded by yowling cats. The cats return to the tracks Wednesday, when Gran picks up the next batch. She loves this work.
Sunita tells Mother some of the cats are abandoned strays who deserve good homes. Mother agrees, checks her watch, and announces she needs to take the twins to the playground. Brenna says they should head out, too, since they promised Dr. Mac they wouldn’t wear Sunita out, but Mother insists it’s no bother and kind of them to visit.
Sunita watches her friends, then Mother and the twins, file out waving goodbye. She moves the couch to the window to watch them go: Maggie and the others toward the clinic, Mother and the twins shrinking toward Main Street. She lies on the cushions, tired, and tries to nap, but every time she closes her eyes she remembers the trapped feeling, the look in Tiger’s eyes and the baby fox’s eyes. She hates it.
Sunita realizes she was wrong. A cat raised wild can’t become a pet, no matter how much she wishes otherwise. She can help make feral cats safe and keep them from having more kittens, but she can’t turn them into friendly companions. Worse, her hope of convincing Mother to let her have a cat was ruined when Tiger bit her, and she has no idea how to change her mind now.
Sunita remembers the TVSR information booklet Dr. Mac gave Gary, and how it transformed his mindset. That’s it. She doesn’t need Dr. Mac to convince Mother. Sunita will write the book herself.