I love cats. I love them so much. I want to adopt as many as possible and have them all sleep on my bed so I can watch the little cuties nap all day. The issue is, I’m allergic to them. I’ve lived with a roommate who had a cat and loved it. Waking up with my eyes swollen shut because I forgot to take my meds the night before, not so much. Sadly, my dream of having a furry friend got put off until I could get my life in order. I figured if I could get into routine, I could easily add taking pills onto it so I cold adopt a cat.
I moved out of that apartment with my old college roommate into a condo my uncle wanted to sell. The condo has these electric baseboard heaters that I think are a fire hazard and so did my uncle. He couldn’t live with himself if he sold the place and it burning down afterwards because he didn’t replace the heaters. But to put in a different system cost a lot. More than he could afford. In the end he figured he would sell his place and then move into the condo after it got all spruced up. That may take him a year or so to finally get around to doing it. The people in my family all had a bad habit of putting things off. In the meantime, he let me rent out the place.
I only wanted to stay for a short amount of time. My plan was to find a job in my field and move if needed. Then the pandemic hit and most employers figured out they could have people work from home. The months passed by and I had a job, but I didn’t have any plans or reason to move. My uncle never bothered me to leave and I wanted to see how long it may take him to finally get ready for the home renos in the condo.
Since living here, I have noticed a few feral cats outside. My heart broke seeing them out there. Cold, wet, alone and dirty. I’ve hears some people go on about it’s good for cats to live outside but the native bird population might have something else to say about that. Seeing these cats outside with rounded ears from frostbite, and God knows what diseases, frustrated me enough to want to snap at anyone trying to bring up the outside argument. But that is not what this is about. It’s about the mistake I made.
I started putting food outside for the cats with a plan of buying a trap to get them fixed. If they were too feral, they needed to be put back outside, but, if possible, I wanted them to find some nice and warm home. I needed to get them in a trusting mood before I got out the traps and risked scaring them all away.
Now, I understand it’s not just the cats that eat the food. They might be lucky to get some early in the night. Other animals like raccoons, possums and skunks ate what they wanted. My condo had a very small backyard made up mostly of cement squares from the previous owners. The wooden fence very much in need of repairs and gate crooked. One board of the fence fell off and that’s how the animals are getting to the steps by the backdoor. I didn’t mind. I loved to see them all when I couldn’t sleep at night. I even named some of the skunks.
You really shouldn’t feed wild animals for so many reasons. I kept telling myself I would stop the moment I caught all the cats and took care of them. I only caught one who came by in the day time and dropped him off to a shelter. No one came for him and he got adopted out soon after he recovered from being outside. That kept me going. I hated the thought of any cat going hungry because I stopped putting food outside.
In the middle of the night, I heard noises coming from outside. My bedroom window overlooks the small backyard and the small patch of trees beyond it. I figured it was the skunks from it being around three AM. I needed to use the washroom and felt awake. Normally I got a snack, looked to see what cute night time guest came by and then headed to bed.
I didn’t turn on the kitchen light. I kept the bathroom one on upstairs and how the layout worked, the light reached downstairs letting me see enough to move around. Peanut butter toast sounded like a good late-night snack. I placed the bread in the toaster and then walked over to the sliding glass door to see what showed up that night.
I didn’t see anything at first. The first-floor windows open a little so I could hear that rustling sound again. Was something behind the fence? I sometimes heard a racoon climbing up before I saw them. Or maybe they heard me inside and started to climb away. I held still, trying to make no noise and hope it made the creature brave enough to show itself. A different sound replaced the rustling. Something like a long high-pitched inhale.
I nearly let out a scream when the source of the sound came. A face slowly started to peek over the back fence. Like a nightmare, that pale face kept rising upwards until it was a few feet over the top of the worn-down wooden fence. This had to be a prank. That fence at least six feet tall and this face stood four feet above that. The face wasn’t natural. It looked impossibly long and stretched out. If I wasn’t so scared, I would think it might look a bit funny in a gruesome sort of way. The head on the long neck moved forwards and I jumped when a sound came inside my house. Just the toaster. The damn thing nearly gave me a heart attack.
When I looked back, that pale naked thing started to climb over the fence while still making that horrible sharp sound. The eyes dark and pulled downwards along with all the other facial features. I didn’t stay long enough to try and figure out if this thing had a gender. I turned to run towards the front door and tripped over a table I found in trash I’ve been meaning to fix up. The long creature already at the back door. By the time I got back to my feet, shin throbbing in pain, it smashed the back door open with massively long hands.
People do really stupid things when they’re scared to death. With the table in my way and the creature so close, I didn’t run to safety outside but instead I ran upstairs. I felt finger tips brush against the back of my shirt as I ran, nearly falling forwards up the steps. I only looked back the moment I got inside the bathroom to see that thing’s pale outline standing at the bottom of the stairs. Face showing a smile that could stop your heart. It reached out a hand, the arm so long it nearly cleared the entire length of the steps and to the bathroom door. I slammed it shut with a very loud scream.
The bathroom was the only room in the house with a lock. I didn’t think it would hold. The handle moved slightly then harder. I don’t know how long that thing wiggled the handle and banged ion the door trying to get inside. I didn’t even have any weapons besides some cleaning chemicals. Finally, the sounds stopped.
There wasn’t a window in the bathroom so I didn’t know how long I sat on the floor for, cowering in fear. I left my phone on the kitchen counter to charge the night before. The time passed slowly, making me feeling every second of it. I didn’t hear any sounds for a while and started to see some light coming from under the doorframe. With bravery I didn’t think I had, I unlocked the door, peeking outside. Seeing no signs of the monster, I carefully went downstairs, entire body shaking.
The window still broken but nothing else touched besides a torn open bag of dry cat food scattered on the ground. I pressed against the wall trying to get to my phone. I kept my recycling bins at the end of the kitchen counter. My kitchen and living room all the same room, but with the one long counter to divide them. I got closer and noticed that the empty week-old cans of wet can food from the bins had been placed on the counter in a stack. I’d stopped buying it because it cost so much and thought I could get more dry food for less. On a flyer someone written one word in dirt from outside in long thin letters as if the words were written with a fingertip.
MORE
I called the police, fixed the back glass door and set up a camera for outside. My uncle was just happy I was safe from whoever broke in. I could never tell them the real truth. I just said a crazy naked tall homeless guy broke the backdoor and I hid in the bathroom until he left. My uncle offered to let him stay with him, but I didn’t want to burden someone else with the creature I’d attracted by putting wet cat food outside.
I’ve stayed and put aside money for more wet food. I haven’t seen anything besides the regular animals in the cameras but I don’t dare stop putting out the good stuff and risk that tall monster breaking in again. At least now I’m more focused on getting the feral cats caught, fixed and shots up to date. It’s the least I can do for them. I have terrible nightmares of that night. I fear that creature may come again when I’m sleeping so I’ve started shift going to bed during the day. My life has changed a lot of ways that aren’t all that great.
Please do me a favor and if you are going to feed feral cats, know what you’re doing a head of time. Don’t make the same mistake as me. You really never know what is coming by and eating the food you’re leaving out.