Mystery animal

Yesterday, such a fright. I got home from work and there was this animal hanging out of the garage!

It was my fault! I had been negotiating to get the garage fixed but the wheels turned slowly and between us Howard and I have taken too long to figure things out. Meanwhile there is this space under the eaves. These were the wages of that.

I called Howard. He said, "What? I'm on the Thruway."

I said, "Howard, there's a dead animal hanging out of our garage."

He said something to the effect of what was he supposed to do about that.

"It's so embarrassing," I said.

And it was! This long tail and these feet, hanging out of the garage. You could not miss it. What was I going to do?

"Are you sure it's dead?" Howard said. "Are you sure it's not just hanging out?"

"It's dead," I said. Those limbs looked totally lifeless. It was ridiculous to think this creature, whatever it was, could be alive.

And then ... one of the feet moved.

"It's not dead," I said.

But where would the animal go? How would it get out of there?

What kind of an animal was it, anyway?

What if it was a ...

... raccoon?

Suddenly the animal, whatever it was, heaved itself up into the garage and lay there. All I could think was that it was stuck. Clearly it was crawling in there to die and then we could deal with it. Howard agreed with that strategy and I let him go back to his afternoon. I did not know what else to do.

A while later I was out on the porch, working on my Pennario project. I kept glancing up at the garage, though. I could not help it. And eventually the animal moved again and came into better focus.

It was a cat.

Just a cat. And it did not look stuck. It looked relaxed. It was napping.

Once it awoke and groomed itself for a while, in this little space in the garage. Then it slept, facing me with its little cat ears. I saw what the situation was: It just liked it up there. Probably it was cool under the eaves, and no one could get at it or disturb it.

After that panic, the evening took on a new peace. It was quiet. A few birds circled overhead. There was the call of the mourning dove, the squeak of a swing set. The cat slept.

A bee drifted over to me and buzzed lazily around the porch chairs. The cat turned over and slept some more.

It felt like the Deep South!

One minute I turned my back and when I looked again the cat was gone. It must have jumped down and gone on its way. But it was fun while it lasted, watching it nap.

I am still going to get the porch fixed. But I feel I will have to apologize to the cat.

I regret depriving it of its haven!