Hannah Finds a New Home

An early morning sunbeam shone across the grass, making the dew sparkle like tiny round rainbows.  Hannah opened her golden-green kitty eyes slowly and stretched her silky gray front legs out in front of her, yawning wide. Then she noticed she was alone.

“Mama! Where are you?” she called, looking quickly from side to side as she struggled to get her sleepy legs to stand.

Last night Hannah had been playing in the meadow with her two brothers, chasing lightning bugs while Mama Cat watched the sun set. Hannah had tired and found a soft hollow under a tree to lie down – “Just for a moment,” she had told herself. While sleeping, she had not heard Mama Cat and her brothers calling as they searched for her. And now no one was around but a big noisy bird yelling “Caw! Caw!” way above her head.

Hannah tried to smooth her fur the way Mama Cat had shown her, so there would be one less thing to be scolded about when she found her family. “I’m sure Mama will have a lot to say about wandering off and not coming when called, and how lucky I was not to be eaten by a fox or a bear. But I will be happy to hear Mama’s voice no matter how much lecturing I get,” Hannah thought, heading out from her hiding place.

“I can’t remember how we got here,” worried Hannah. “And Mama always says not to talk with strangers, so I can’t ask anyone. But I should find something for breakfast first.”

The sparkling dew caught her attention with its pretty colors. “It’s cool and wet! I can drink this!” Hannah said out loud to herself, just to hear another kitty voice. She lapped up the droplets scattered around her. They were so small that it took a long time for her to stop being thirsty. “Now I’m hungry, too,” said Hannah.

She tried nibbling grass the way she had seen deer eating in the yard behind her house. “Bleah!” she said, spitting it out. Then she tried biting into an acorn like the squirrels. “Ugh, that’s even worse,” she said. “There must be something else I can eat.” But she didn’t see anything that looked even a little interesting to try.

“I guess I’ll be okay until I find Mama, or until she finds me,” sighed Hannah, and she continued to search the meadow as the sun rose higher and higher in the sky. “But now I’m tired from so much walking in the hot sun. I’ll take a nap over there by the stream – just for a moment.” She found a shady spot and curled up to rest, her furry gray tail over her nose.

Hannah opened her eyes wide as a little boy – like the one who lived in the house with her and Mama Cat and her brothers –scooped her up from the ground.

“Ma! Ma! Look what I found! Can we keep it?” the little boy yelled.

Hannah yelled too. “Put me down! I have to find my family!”

But the two humans didn’t seem to understand her any better than the humans where she lived, or at least where she had lived until yesterday.

The tall human called “Ma” came closer. “She looks a lot like my own human Mom, but her hair is a different color,” thought Hannah.

Ma gently stroked the back of Hannah’s head with one finger. “Oh, you are a cutie! But so tiny – you must have wandered off from your mother and gotten lost.” Hannah tried to say “Yes,” even though she was ashamed to admit that she had not obeyed Mama Cat, but all that came out was a sad little “Meowww.”

“I’d love to take her home with us, but Daddy is allergic to cats,” Ma said to the little boy. “We’ll have to take her to a shelter, so they can find a good home for her.”

The little boy looked sad, but nodded and said, “Yes, I know Daddy sneezes a lot near cats. But couldn’t I just keep her in my room?” He turned a hopeful face to Ma, and Hannah looked at Ma, too.

“No, it’s not fair for a kitten to be locked up in one room. And you would have cat hair on you, so Daddy would still be sneezing,” said Ma. The little boy sadly agreed as he and Ma walked to their car. Ma buckled the boy’s seat belt since his hands were still full of Hannah, who decided this would be a good time for another nap – just for a moment.

The car stopped moving and Hannah opened her eyes. Ma and the little boy carried her inside a big building and told a man wearing a badge that said “Roger Cox, Pet Keeper” how they had found the tiny gray kitten. Hannah looked up at the man and asked, “Can you help me find my family?” But he only smiled and didn’t seem to understand. “Why is it,” Hannah wondered. “that I can understand humans perfectly, but none of them seem to understand a word I say!”

Then she was carried away while the little boy and Ma waved goodbye. In a big noisy room full of caged cats, Hannah was suddenly pushed into a metal cage that already had two other cats in it.

“Oh great,” said the larger cat, arching his brown and black striped back to make himself look even bigger. “Now it will be crowded in here.”

“I’m not very big,” said Hannah. “I don’t take up much room.”

“Don’t mind Roscoe,” said the white cat, waving one of her four black feet toward the bigger cat. “He can be such a grump.”

“You would be grumpy, too, if you had been here as long as I have,” growled Roscoe. Turning to Hannah he said, “Serena only came a few weeks ago, but I’ve been here since the last snow.”

“What’s snow?” asked Hannah, trying to think if she had ever heard the word before.

“Ohhh,” said Serena to Roscoe, “she’s just a little kitten and hasn’t been through a winter yet.” Turning to Hannah, she said, “Snow is frozen water that sometimes floats down from the sky. Maybe you’ll see some when you grow up. But what is your name? You know ours.”

“I’m Hannah,” said Hannah sadly, “and I’ve lost Mama Cat and my two brothers and my human family and…” She started mewing sadly, unable to find the right words to say how alone and lost she felt. “How will they ever find me here?” she finally managed to ask.

Roscoe and Serena were both quiet, afraid to upset Hannah even more. Finally Roscoe nodded to Serena, who lay down by Hannah’s side and wrapped her fluffy tail around both of them. “I’m sorry, Hannah,” Serena said softly. “They might not find you here.” Hannah started to wail. “But,” Serena added quickly, “sometimes another family comes by and decides to take us to new homes.”

Roscoe came around Hannah’s other side and wrapped a paw over her back. “There, there, little one. You’re so cute, I’m sure you’ll find a new home very soon.” Hannah squeezed her eyes shut as tears began rolling down her silvery gray face, and she snuggled closer to both older cats for comfort.

The Pet Keeper, arrived a little later, although Hannah couldn’t tell what time it was because there weren’t any windows for her to see the color of the sky. He pushed a cart holding dishes full of dry cat food, and quickly opened cage doors to shove in one dish for each cat, slamming the doors shut to keep anyone from escaping. Roscoe and Serena sat up when they heard the noise, but Hannah stayed in a corner as far from the noise as she could. As three dishes were pushed into their cage, Roscoe called, “Hannah, come have dinner.”

Hannah just shook her head. “I’m not really hungry,” she said.

“But they take away whatever we don’t eat, and you might get hungry later,” said Serena. Hannah just turned away and put her paws over her face.

Serena and Roscoe looked at each other. Then Roscoe knocked half the food out of one dish, pushing the kibble into a back corner of the cage. “In case she gets hungry later,” he whispered to Serena before gobbling down all his own food plus a little from the dish meant for Hannah.

The lights were always on in the shelter, so when Hannah woke up some time later, she was confused. “Is it still daytime?” she asked. “I’m hungry. Where are the food bowls?”

“The Pet Keeper took them away while you were asleep,” said Serena, quickly adding as she saw Hannah’s face turn even sadder, “but there’s some over in the corner for you.”

“Thank you, Serena,” said Hannah gratefully as she ate.

“It was Roscoe who saved it for you,” said Serena.

“Serena said you’re a grump, but that was kind and thoughtful!” said Hannah to Roscoe. She rubbed the side of her face against his to show her thanks.

“It’s the least I could do after your terrible day,” he mumbled. Serena came over and rubbed her face against his other cheek, and soon all three cats were in a happy purring heap until they fell asleep.

“I’m not missing breakfast today,” said Hannah when they woke up to the rumbling sound of the Pet Keeper rolling in the food cart. All three ate hungrily, cleaning their bowls.

“What do you do all day for fun?” asked Hannah, hoping for a tug of war with string or a ball to chase.

The two older cats shook their heads. “We just stay here until someone comes who might want to adopt us,” said Roscoe.

“How about doing riddles, then?” asked Hannah. “Here’s one: what’s the difference between a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a piece of buttered toast?”

“That’s easy!” said Serena. “Only the toast is crunchy.”

“But what if it’s crunchy peanut butter instead of creamy?” asked Roscoe.

“Hmmmm, you’re right. I give up. What’s the answer, Hannah?” asked Serena.

“They both have jelly on them except the toast,” laughed Hannah.

Roscoe rolled his eyes at the bad joke, but he and Serena couldn’t help but laugh, too.

Suddenly they heard shrieking as a family with a small noisy girl came into the cage-lined room.

“Quick Hannah, get behind us,” said Roscoe, pushing her to the back of their cage. He and Serena made themselves look as big as possible to fill the front of the cage as Roscoe continued softly, “This is definitely not the right family for you, Hannah.”

The two larger cats growled and hissed when the girl stopped in front of them and shouted “Kitty!” Kitty!” while rattling the cage and poking her fingers between the wires. Upset by all her shouting, unhappy cats in other cages began howling.  Finally, the girl’s parents pulled her away.

“You are scaring them,” said her father.

“You have to be quiet and gentle if you want a kitty,” said her mother.

The little girl started stamping her feet, screaming “Kitty! Kitty! Kitty!” Her father picked her up and all three left.

“Whew, I’m glad that’s over,” sighed Serena.

“Does that happen often?” asked Hannah.

“More often than it should,” replied Roscoe. “It’s so sad when they take a cat home with them anyway. I feel sorry for anyone living in a home like that.”

Hannah shivered to think that it might have happened to her. “Thank you for hiding me.” She kissed each of her friends on the nose, and then Serena and Roscoe each kissed hers. They didn’t notice another man and woman walk right up to their cage.

“Look how sweet these three are,” said the woman softly, “and one is just a tiny kitten. Hello, little one.”

Hannah looked up at the two older cats. Roscoe nodded, whispering, “Look, they are holding hands. They must have lots of love to share.”

Hannah walked to the front of the cage and said shyly, “Hello?”

Now the man smiled, too, and said, “I sure miss having a cat living with us. And she’s such a pretty silvery gray. I think we should bring her home. And I think we should call her Hannah.”

At this, Hannah was so surprised that all she could do was squeak, “They know my name!” Her two cat friends leaned against each other, knowing Hannah would be going to a good home.

As  the Pet Keeper lifted Hannah out of the cage and placed her in the woman’s arms, Serena said, “I’ll miss her.”

“I will, too,” said Roscoe.

“Why, you old grump, she brought out your good heart,” laughed Serena. As she and Roscoe curled up next to each other and waved goodbye to Hannah, a family with two children came in.

“Oh, these two are such beautiful cats!” said the girl.

“Look, one’s a boy and one’s a girl, just like us,” said the boy. “And they are curled around each other like best friends.”

Hannah smiled as she watched the Pet Keeper lift first Roscoe and then Serena into happy waiting arms as she was carried out by her own new human Mom and Dad.

It was a short ride to Hannah’s new home, and her new Mom carried her into the house, setting Hannah down on a soft pillow in a corner of the kitchen. “Hannah. Yes, that is just the right name for you,” said Mom.

Dad pulled two bowls out of a cabinet, filling one with water and the other with kitty kibble. “It’s tuna flavor,” squeaked Hannah, joyfully sniffing the air. “My favorite!” She wasted no time jumping up onto the counter where Dad placed the bowls – her very own bowls – and crunched away while Mom and Dad took turns stroking her back.

“Hannah, here’s your litter box,” said Dad, placing her on the floor to show her the box in a corner near a broom and a mop. “And now, come explore your new home.”

“Ohhhh, a nice big sunny spot in the living room,” purred Hannah. “And wide windowsills so I can watch the birds without going outside where I could get lost again.” She looked up at her new family and rubbed against their legs. “Thank you for this wonderful new home!”

“It’s so nice to have a cat around the house,” sighed Mom, kneeling to scratch Hannah behind the ears in just the right place. Hannah purred even more loudly, making Dad laugh.

That night, Hannah followed Mom and Dad upstairs and curled up on the bed at their feet, in a happy heap of family.