My Old Coworker

In my eyes, school can count as work. Firstly, you are completing paperwork so someone can criticize it. Secondly, you are reading and reviewing material nobody else in their right mind would want to read and review. Thirdly, you are on a regular schedule of rising early in the morning for classes you may or may not want to attend and staying up way beyond what is healthy for the average human being to complete the assignments for the day because someone else needed you all day long.

That being said, I am regularly accompanied by an old fogey. He seems to always be in my way and when I try to sit down for a study session he is right there bugging the dickens out of me. Who is this annoying old fogey? He is my cat. My adorable, attention-seeking cat.

My cat is more or less a rescue animal. He came to my family and me in the summer of 2019. At the time I was working in a nursing home and I was working the 2-10pm shift. I ended up working late one night and as I was driving home I saw a pair of green eyes stare at me from the gutter in front of our house. This didn't seem unusual at the time because I had seen stray cats in the neighborhood before. I go about my usual routine of parking my car and settling in for the night. Now, at the time, the house we were living in didn't have central cooling and we were in the thick of summer. Naturally, we opened the windows at night so the house could cool down before the morning heat came again.

I was sitting down to a bedtime snack at the dining room table when I hear meowing outside the window. My first thought was, "What the...?" So I investigated. I didn't know if my siblings were trying to play a trick on me or if it was some kind of joke. I opened the door and flicked on the deck light. This was no joke. There, on the deck on a warm June night, was a long-haired, green-eyed, gaunt cat desperately trying to catch and eat some June bugs for a small meal. At the time I had no idea where this cat had come from, but he looked like he could use some company.

I sat down and started calling out to him and eventually, though cautiously, allowed me to pet him and give him attention. He was the most adorable thing I had ever seen. I felt bad for the poor creature. He seemed so happy that someone had the compassion to give him a little bit of love. I had to share the exciting news of my discovery with someone in the household. Initially, I called for my sister, but she had already gone to bed for the night, but my brother was still awake so he shared the joy of the evening with me.

We sat on the deck discussing names and if our mother would even allow us to keep him. We weren't sure if the cat was a boy or a girl because we couldn't see any family jewels, but he wasn't acting like a female cat. We weren't even sure of his age! At last, my brother said, "Whether the cat is a boy or a girl we are naming it Goose."

"Goose?" I questioned. "Why Goose?"

"He looks just like the cat from Captain Marvel!" my brother explained.

The night was growing late, so we gave the kitty some water before we went inside for the night. I texted my mother to let her know there was a cat on the deck and that we'd like to keep it.

The next day my mother talked to us and she explained that the cat had to have come from somewhere. So it became our primary goal to see if we could return it to its owner. We took pictures of it and posted them on Facebook. We cared for the cat as the days passed. Everywhere I went I spoke of the cat, secretly hoping nobody stepped up to claim it.

Then, I mentioned the cat to a coworker one night. After verifying the details of how the cat looked and about the age he was, she said, "Oh yeah! That's my brother's cat!" I was crushed. We had grown to love and care for the cat. I verified with her the gender of the cat and our suspicions were right. The cat was, in fact, a neutered male. I also asked about his age and she told me he was at least ten. We talked a bit longer and she shared with me that he had been put out of the house because of territorial kittens. He'd had a brother at one point, but he had been run over by a train. They had figured since he'd wandered off that he had been run over by the train that ran by the neighborhood. They weren't even looking for him! During our conversation, I asked her if her brother wanted his cat back and she said she'd have to talk to him.

I returned home and broke the news to the family. My second oldest brother, who was about ten at the time, started crying. He had become emotionally attached to the cat. My mom and I prepared the children for what could possibly happen. My brothers were hoping the owner wouldn't want his cat back.

Eventually, my mom set a deadline. She was tired of the waiting and all of us were becoming emotionally attached to the kitty which we affectionately named Goose. I told my coworker about the deadline and she didn't respond until the day of the deadline. She messaged me and said that we could have Goose. We were all so happy! He immediately became a full-fledged member of the family and he has been with us since!

Now, two years later, he is crawling all over me during classes and sitting on my paperwork, thus forbidding me from doing anything productive just so he knows we still love him. I give him a little attention and he settles into the chair next to me knowing he has a forever home.