Exhibit A: THE CREEPY CAT
Before I even signed my lease, I met the creepy cat. My landlord and I were walking around the outside of the house, and he was trying to sell me on renting a house I was only about 99% sure I wanted to live in. From behind the garage came a gray and white tiger cat with bright green eyes, meowing loudly and staring me down. “Oh, looks like I’ve already made a friend in the neighborhood,” I said. “Don’t let him in the house,” the landlord said with a sense of urgency. I figured at first that it was maybe just because he didn’t like cats….but I could be wrong.
Almost every time I went to the house from that point on, the cat was there. One of my strangest encounters with Creepy Cat came the first weekend I was there painting, getting ready to move in. The cat came up on the porch, meowing, begging to be let in. I locked the screen door and called the kids downstairs. “Your cat’s here to visit!” I yelled. Although I have a great amount of apathy towards cats, my boys, especially my youngest, love them. I was watching them talk to the cat through the screen when the cat suddenly, and seemingly deliberately, went from sitting perfectly still to rolling backwards down the cement porch steps. When he landed at the bottom, he remained on his back, feet in the air, meowing the most pitiful meow I’ve ever heard. “Mom, he’s hurt!” my 9-year-old said, reaching up to unlock the screen door. “No!” I insisted. “He’s fine. Go back upstairs.” I didn’t take my eyes off the cat as the boys made their way back to their rooms. Did I just witness a stray cat fake an injury to gain sympathy in an attempt to get in my house? I couldn’t believe it.
After a few minutes, the cat was back up at the top of the porch, meowing away. “Go away!” I said, looking him dead in his cold, unblinking eyes. With my mom as my witness, that cat began ramming his head into the screen, trying to force his way into the house. I slammed the storm door, locking the deadbolt just in case. What was with this cat?!?!
The cat still came around for a while after that, circling the porch, meowing, but nothing too out of the ordinary. The only other strange encounter we had was the time I left the house late at night after a day of painting and found him rubbing his face all over the front of my van. I yelled at him to “Get!” but he was relentless. I was convinced he was putting a curse on the family vehicle.
I haven’t seen Creepy Cat in a couple weeks. And that, perhaps, creeps me out more than anything….
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