(written 4/10/2016)

Narrative Project: The Story

            Probably around November or December-ish last year, I was helping my neighbor across the street, Joanne, with something. She wanted me to double check some stuff were off in her house while she was out, and since stray cats stay around her place, I thought I would say hi to them before I went back home. I went down to their garage, because when I called for them on the porch, none of them came out. When I got down there, I saw one of the stray cats, a tortoiseshell (my family calls her Dinah), with six kittens: a black one, a orange tabby, a tan tabby, a tortoiseshell (just like her), a calico, and a grey with white paws. They were so cute! I was texting my mom that I found them. Joanne was telling my mom that she was concerned that they would never be tame, because all of them were stray outdoor cats, so my mom told her that I could train them to become less feral. So that’s what I did for some months since then. It did take a long time, and two of the kittens, the calico and the grey with white paws, went missing a couple months ago, but the other four are completely tame as far as I’m concerned. Every one of the kittens, except for the calico, were tame, which is why it’s odd to me that the grey one went missing too. I don’t know exactly when these kittens will be adopted out for certain, but I know that they are basically ready for adoption.

            In this series, each work describes what I was feeling throughout this whole event, and each stray cat is symbolized as an eye-shape (or a lens or an ellipse). The first describes my excitement for discovering them. The second describes the chaos in trying to get them together, and to meet all of them without them running away from me. The third to sixth describes the progression in me trying to tame all the stray cats. Of course, over time, a few of the cats were lost or adopted out, which is why there are only three of the six kittens present in the last piece.