Terry's Gwen

"We already have two cats, I'm happy with two cats, we don't need a third one, so once we can get her out we'll take care of her until your aunt can find her a new home," I remember my mom said.

We were kind of sad about it at first. She has this sweet face and personality. The saddest part is that she seemed just as lonely as her previous owner but while we fostered her she became more lively. She was happy to always see one of us while she was closed up in the room. She would play with her toys and run around a bit. The longer one of us sat down with her, the more she began to trust, the more she began to trust, the more she hated when one of us had to leave her room. Those plans changed pretty quickly the longer we kept Gwen.

I pulled into the parking lot of the apartment complex and parked the car. I had just got done with school for the day. As I made my way over to the passenger's side to grab my book bag, my mom was walking up to me. I noticed that the manager's office door was open and guessed that my parents were talking.

"Hi," I greeted her.

"Hi," she replied back.

The way her tone was, I can tell something had happened. I stood on edge, when it comes to my mom wanting to tell me something its because she's stressed or my dad or my sister did something that she didn't like.

"What's up?"

"Terry past away," she said.

It took a minute for me to click the name in my head. "Oh, upstairs Terry?"

She nodded and burst into tears. "And no one knows yet."

I dropped my bag and gave her a hug. "What do you mean no one knows yet?"

"Tim hasn't told anyone on the property yet."

"Oh okay," I understood.

I don't know why she needed to tell me that but as long as the police knew and were taking care of Terry's body, the other neighbors on the property could handle that information anyway they wanted.

Terry lived alone and was very depressed. She did a lot of things to try and help her depression. She was coloring, playing video games, knitting, using self positivity books, every type of exercise to keep feeling the pain she was feeling. The only thing that seemed to break her out of the slump even just for a little bit was smoking and drinkning. When she was sober, she was sweet and kind. Sometimes you could have a decent conversation with her, and get to hear her back story. I've never seen her drunk though, and I'm glad I never did, because that meant that I could remember her as she was as sober.

My dad said that no one had seen her come down in the past couple of days. She was also working for Home Depot at the time but no one claims to see her working at all within those days. My dad grew concerned and decided to go check up on her. When she didn't answer the door, he let himself in with the spare key and that's when he found her on the bed, still and lifeless. Throughout the week the police discovered that she had died of alcohol poisoning.

The next couple of days Terry's apartment was being stripped apart. My dad had told Terry's family the news but that they wanted nothing in her apartment, so he was allowed to put it all up for sale. There was a lot of people coming and going. Gwen was already a skittish cat, every time we talked with Terry, Gwen would stand behind her for a split second and then make a dash to the bedroom. I can only imagine how scared she must have felt with so many people going in and out of her house and none of them were Terry. By the second day the apartment was empty except for the bedroom, it was also Gwen's hiding spot.

My sister and I were hanging out in my room when my dad came in.

"Hey, got a job for you girls," he said.

"Okay..." I said skeptically.

"We still need to get Terry's cat out from under the bed, some people are going to come pick it up tomorrow. You guys are a little bit smaller and younger than mom and I, see if you can luer her out."

So, my sister and I went up there. My mom gave us a bag of treats and as I continuously shook them she wouldn't come out. My sister laid down on one side of the bed and I laid on the other. Gwen was up in the mattress so it was harder to reach her. I was able to reach up just enough to give her little finger pets. We kept talking to her and tried giving her treats through the hole she created. Finally, after two hours, of her shifting around I managed to grab her by the scruff and pull her out.

"I got her, I got her!" I cried.

I held on to her until I was able to pick her up like a baby and I carried her into the bathroom. She was scared and started flipping out to where I had to let her down before she jumped out my arms and possibly hurt herself. My sister and I waited outside the bathroom and I texted my mom telling her that we finally got her. A few moments later, she came back up with one of our cat carriers.

"I was thinking that it will be too cold in that bathroom for her, so we're going to keep her with us for now. At least she'll be warm and have food."

So, we got her in the carrier and carried her home where she bunked with my sister for the next couple of weeks. My aunt who takes care of strays wasn't finding much luck with finding an owner, so after some time my mom decided that we could keep Gwen. We decided to keep her name since that was the name she came with, and it would be apart of something of Terry that will always remain with her.

For the next couple of months, Gwen grew used to our other cats and settled down nicely in our home, to this day she still loves her back rubs and is very vocal. She is still strong and healthy too and now, not so skittish around new humans.