The rumors of his demise were greatly exaggerated.Last night at about 6:30 p.m. we received an e-mail from someone who saw one of the fliers we'd put up at a market. The woman said our cat had been hanging around her place for a few days, stopping by around 5 p.m. for the food she would leave. I casually clicked open the series of photos the woman had attached and found Belikin.
We'd had few leads at this point, and after Mapquesting the address I had my doubts that he had gotten that far: The woman lived off of El Cajon Boulevard, where 67th Street ends and becomes a little known road. To get there Belikin would have had to cross the 8 Freeway, navigate the college area around SDSU, and pass Montezuma and El Cajon Boulevard.
But the pictures were pictures of him.
No one was home when I reached the house around 7 p.m. Sarah was in class, so I went alone. I knocked, and when I turned to go calling for him, he was already coming up the porch steps. In the fading light it was difficult to know for sure if it was him. I twisted and turned him under the light of a streetlamp, but still couldn't be sure. I sat with him for a while, considering. The distance had planted a formidable seed of doubt. I stuffed him in a cage and brought him home.
Kitty seemed to know him. His markings looked right. But he seemed a little blonder, and his facial structure looked off from certain angles. His behavior was similar and different at the same time, but he was highly stressed. He sounds different, but he also has a cold. It's hard to know how life on the outside might change him. The vet said he's healthy except for some fleas and a slight respiratory infection.
He's such a unique personality, we were expecting certainty upon finding him — "Belikin, I presume." Now we're searching for things that make him an impostor. But would a cat that didn't know us show so much affection for us? Would it be comfortable in a strange house? Would two cats that didn't know one another tolerate the other's presence with just a few half-hearted hisses?
It's where he was found. That's the seed. In time we'll know — but by then, by the time we know one way or another, this doppelganger will be Belikin. Time will have eroded the dissimilarities and accentuated the sameness.
Or, perhaps it's just him. Belikin's back.
Jason
PS: The errant bastard's improbable route.
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2 comments:
Holy moly, that is far!
Perhaps more improbable than it seems. Sarah's certain it's not him that we've brought home, and I'm leaning that way.
We've switched from calling him "Belikin" to calling him "Maybe."
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