Outside

Yesterday, I’s looking out of the big glass door. I wanted to go outside, but I’m too little. So, this big animal came in through a small hole in the screen, and it walked up to the glass door and looked at me and I ran. I found the woman and meowed, and she said, what’s wrong, and I shivered. She went into the room where the door is and saw the big animal and said, that’s just Red. He comes here for sunflower seeds. He’s a good guy. She picked me up, and took me and some seeds outside. Better eat and run, she said, the hawk is out. Then she told me that there’s a great big hawk that lives in one of the pine trees and he eats little animals and that he has already eaten the fat squirrel. Red didn’t even play hard to get. He walked right up to the woman and began eating the seeds. Keep your head down old boy, she said to Red, and then we came back inside. She closed the glass door and said you can never, ever go outside by yourself. You are too tiny and that hawk would carry you off and I’d never see you again. Then I attacked the little green ball.

Getting use to things

I’m still here and still hiding but not as much. The woman says things like, Ginger you’re the cutest little girl in the whole wide world. I look at her and blink my eyes, which is how I say I know. I have toys too. My favorite is a big red square that is soft and when I move it, it makes a sound. It’s the baby’s toy. I like the baby’s things, especially the big soft blanket, and I also like the play pen. The baby and the boy are not here but my woman keeps saying things like when the baby is here, we have to be careful and not let her hurt Ginger. So, that means the baby must be one of those mean kids and it also means that my woman is going to take extra care of me. I have to be careful, I can get used to this.

So, last night, I let my woman pet me. She really seemed to enjoy it and what does it hurt to show a little kindness to her…I think she works very hard and needs kindness. But then, she was petting my back and it felt soooo good and then my chin, she does this thing with her hand and my chin, and suddenly, I fell asleep and she picked me up, gently, mind you, and carried me to her chair and put me in her lap and I’s right about the fluffiness of her and it was nice so I slept there for a minute.

Today, I might play with her toes. She moves them an awful lot and they are very tempting. Maybe, I’ll do the sneak attack and run. Won’t that be fun?

It's Me

My name was something else but now it’s Ginger cause my woman likes that I am ginger colored and my nose is soft and cool like ginger right out of the cold box. They say that I’m about five or six weeks old but I duuno. I was born in a ditch with four brothers and one sister and my mama was abandoned there, they think, by the people who wanted her but not us. The lady at the shelter said my mama was pretty hungry and covered in fleas and ticks, but she had managed to keep us alive and herself alive, probably by eating grasshoppers. Anyway, a big man in a big truck caught us and brought us to the shelter and when we were old enough, our mama was adopted to a nice woman who wanted us too but couldn’t take all the kitties. My brothers and sisters and I went into foster care and lived with a woman named Carol. Then, one by one my siblings left to good homes but not me—I’m skittish and that makes me less premium as a pet. So, she put me in a pet store where I was on display. I didn’t like being on display cause people come and tap on the window and make faces at me. I was in my own little cubicle, but I could hear the other kitties playing and see people bringing dogs in to be groomed and I was a little scared. Also, other people came and played with the other kitties and sometimes they took them. I wanted to go, but I'm skittish, so I's pretty much left alone to play with a toy. One day an old woman came by and glanced at me and went to other kitties but she came back to me. She put her hand on the glass and I looked at it and it looked like a good hand but I still ignored her cause I am skittish. Then I heard the lady with the keys and they let the old woman in and then they took me out of my cubicle and handed me to the woman, whose name is Zelda, and she cuddled with me and I jumped out of her arms back into the cubicle, but I looked back and I think we bonded. The woman with the keys tried to get Zelda to take a friendlier kitty, and she did hold other kitties and they snuggled to her and she liked that but she kept looking at me. She asked if anyone seemed interested in that little yellow one and the key lady said no, she's not friendly. Then I heard them whisper and Zelda asked if my shelter was a kill shelter and it was and she thought a long time and said I'll take her. Anyway, she filled out papers and it took a week but finally she came back for me and put me in a new small animal carrier and brought me to her house. I was scared and ran and hid. My woman just waited. Sometimes she looked over the big box where I was hiding and gave me little bits of meat and talked quietly and clicked. I like that click and then I heard her in the big bright room with the cold box and she was putting me food in a bowl and I peeked around the corner and I saw her sitting there. I still ignored her but not the food. I think I’ll like it here. I still miss my mama and siblings but this woman, I think she might just be a good person to hang with. And there’s a fluffy man, and he isn’t allowed to be loud or walk near my bed or turn on the television until I’m ready. Hey, did I tell you that she is really fluffy too and after I make her beg for a while, I might sit in her lap and purr for her…but not too soon.