The Cats, the Presents and the Past

The little black and white cat showed up at their door two nights in a row. The first evening Robin had observed it favouring its back leg. He had asked Mary the next day if she had seen it, but no she hadn’t it. However, the following evening as Mary checked in on the stray cat she kept quarantined in the sunroom there at the front glass door a little face appeared staring inside at her. It was quite sad really that this little thing had no home but the town was full of stray cats.
When Mary had moved here from Toronto she never imagined there would be so many needy cats. Her first encounter with them was seven years ago when she first moved in. She was talking to her neighbour over the fence. As Mary conversed back and forth out of the corner of her eye she had first seen a little orange and white kitten and then its mother not far away.
The neighbour didn’t seem excited to see them back and explained she had already tried to get rid of this family by moving it to a new location. The momma kitty however had dragged ”them all” back behind her garage!
“There’s more?” said Mary. Her new friend motioned to the back of the shed and Mary ran excitedly to see where she pointed. There amidst some mud pots, planters, and dark soil were four more kittens. Mary had been ecstatic. But she realized she could not leave this poor little family here and bundled them all up in a box and brought them in the house.
After the excitement had worn off and the kittens had been checked at the veterinarian Mary tried to get rid of them at every organization, every pet shop, and anywhere she could think but no one had room for them. She was stuck with them.
The momma kitty had taken off. She was not fixed nor was she friendly. She had business elsewhere! However, the little darlings all became deeply rooted in Mary’s and Robin’s heart and had stayed. After a few years two of the cats had to go as they began to spray in the house. The smell had not been nice. It had been a painful experience to have to put one down and give one away. They had been lucky to find a home for the one cat. The other one had undergone every test and every method used to see if they could fix the problem of spraying. Nothing worked. Mary and Robin both felt they had lost a child when they had put the cat down. They had named it Robin and so it had a special meaning. That was a few years ago but the loss was still there.
Momma Kitty had shown up again about 6 months later pregnant. This time she stayed. Months of caring for momma kitty and her new batch of kittens were enough for Mary. Momma Kitty got fixed once the babies were old enough to find homes for them all. Thank God a local pet shop had room to take them in.
The stray that now resided in the sunroom had hung around outside under their deck and house for two years before Mary and Robin took pity on it one cold night this past winter and brought it in. It was friendly to Mary and somewhat to Robin but ran and hid when anyone came to the front door. Mary had named him Whitey when she first saw him and the name had stuck despite the poor little thing being anything but white. Whitey rarely went out now and didn’t seem any too pleased to see this new black and white cat intruding on his privacy!
Mary had fallen immediately in love because this little black and white had wrenched her heart muscles. You see when Mary had been 10 or 11 her mother had given her a little kitten- her first ever! It was identical to this little one. She had named that cat Timmy. He didn’t live long. Timmy had died peacefully. Mary had found him one morning two years after getting him. He lay stretched out in the backyard as if he was asleep. There was not a mark on him. Mary never knew what killed him. Of course, back then Mary’s mom never took their pets to the veterinarian.
Looking at the face of this new stray brought back all kinds of memories of that time period in Toronto, those years they lived across the street from the railway station. They were good times and bad times, Mary recalled.
She and her three siblings and mother lived in a big two story semi-detached with their aunt. Mary’s aunt had come along about the same time as this new kitten and around the same period as the troubles had begun. Mary’s aunt was older, in her 60’s at least physically, but mentally Aunt Annie had the mind of a four year old. Many times Mary remembered her and her sisters teasing their aunt and she would run up the stairs after them threatening them with a shoe. Often times she would lock herself outside and Mary’s mother would have to come home from school at a neighbour’s beckoning to let their aunt back in the house.
Because their mother’s small salary hardly covered the bills their aunt had been welcomed in to help with the financial end of things. Though their house had three bedrooms upstairs and two bedrooms in the attic Mary was forced to sleep with her mother in the living room. Her mother rented the three bedrooms out upstairs to different families over the next years and her other siblings and aunt slept in the attic.
They were difficult years especially the period when Mary's mom made friends with an older woman and her middle aged son. That’s when the trouble began. They used to come for visits. Just the thought of this guy made Mary feel queasy. The only visual Mary could recall was lying in her bed in their living room, and feeling his eyes on her. It still sickened her. Apparently, Martha had her troubles with him, as well, and according to her accounts she and Mary would run across the street and hide behind the railway cars that always seemed to be sitting there and waiting to leave. Just like she and her sister always seemed to be ready to run.
Whether or not Mary or her sister had told their mother Mary could not recall. However, it seemed these two visitors came less and less after a period and this sweet little kitten showed up one day in Mary’s mother’s arms for Mary – a gift. Or was it? Mary often thought afterwards that perhaps it was given to comfort Mary after what had happened. No wonder Mary still loved cats. Her mother never explained why she gave Mary this kitten. Nothing was ever said.
The little black and white cat was a reminder of another gift at another time many years earlier back when Mary was 6. The story was deep, buried, and traumatic. Nothing much was ever said about this incident or the man either. In later years, Mary confronted her mom about her male friend. Her mother denied this man could be responsible for anything that Mary had suggested. So Mary buried the trouble back down deep where it had emerged from her cavern of darkness.
However, at the very same time that her mother's friend had moved out of their house and Mary was transferred to the new school where her mother was now teaching the gifts had come. One was a pretty red polka dotted white dress with a crinoline underneath it. Mary could still remember this dress and how special it made her feel. She recalled the day wearing it out to lunch for French fries with her mom. This was the first time Mary was ever so spoilt. She remembered sitting in a restaurant –another first! Despite sitting up high on the bar stool her eyes could barely see what was on the counter. However, she was able by leaning her elbows on a slant on the corner of the counter to reach her plate of french fries with her hands. She ate happily every last, ketchup- coated stick! What a great day that had been. Over the years looking back Mary wondered about this day. Now she recognized perhaps once again the gifts were meant to comfort and make Mary feel special at a time when she was not, perhaps, treated so special after all.