Confessions of the Cat Lady (2) - The Cat Farm

It's called the Cat Farm because I had a lot of cats there. They found me. Cats have always found me. They found my grandmother, they found my aunt, they found my mother. We are all the Cat Ladies. It was a big wild yard.

People will drop off mom cats out in the bushes. They have their kittens wild. They're not as good as a wild animal at taking care of themselves. What ones come to me I always fed. Some of them never really wanted to be petted. That was okay with me. I didn't want them all living in the house. They wouldn't fit.

I also fed the wild animals, which I shouldn't have done, but they were there and they were eating. They weren't ferocious. Probably the most ferocious - it wasn't ferocious, it was definitely a dog, but it wasn't a dog. Everybody called it the White Fox, but it was too long in the legs to be a fox. I first noticed it when I came around the corner of a building. It came around the other corner. We both stopped and yelped. I think he knew when I was feeding the cats with the dry food, and the birds, and he'd show up sometimes for that. I wonder if he was a cross between a coyote and a dog. He was tamer than a coyote. But he didn't want to see me, and I didn't want to see him.

It's not a good thing to live with your parents but I had to live somewhere. I always worked, but not well paying jobs. A lot of kids in that age, we didn't get a fancy apartment with that money. We stayed home, paid the rent, helped pay for the house. When we did get married, and I didn't, then we'd move out.

I saved up enough money, $1,000, to make a down payment on the little cottage behind the Cat Farm. That was mine, absolutely. That was my place. I paid for it, I bought it, I took a mortgage on it at the Granite Savings Bank. It was only a summer cottage. I lived in it all summer, as long as I could. It was a wonderful house. It had a fireplace. I put in a wood stove to make it last a little longer.

The cats went up to the State Park sometimes. Once I saw my old Tomcat coming back from the State Park. I think he was bringing his lady friend down. "You'll be okay here." I made little shelters out of boxes. It was better than living on their own out on The Point.

I did take the cats on the CATA bus sometimes. I got so I could go all over Cape Ann. Sometimes people would have object to it. But they were in a carrier. They couldn't get out. They don't sound any worse than a baby with diapers. I told them that once. Waaa. There was a lady who used to ride on the bus who was giving me the third degree about how I lived. Everybody is listening. It was getting to the point where she said, "Don't you mind living alone?" I said, "No, I like it." It was true. This tough, female bus driver laughed her head off and cheered, "Atta-girl." Grace wasn't a bad old girl. She just wanted to know everybody's business.

I was pretty much on my own. I took care of myself and my dogs and my cats, on my own. For a while I had rescue animals that people brought, before there was an Animal Aid Association. But my mother thought I shouldn't have the animals in a cage. They should all be out. So while I was working she'd let them all out. All the caged animals that were supposed to be in the shelter, all running around Halibut Point. I had to go around and say, "Okay, guys, suppertime. Suppertime." That would get them back in. But I didn't want to be doing that every goddamn night.

Finally my mother got to the point where the doctor insisted that she go to a nursing home because I wasn't there 24/7. He was afraid something would happen to her while I was not there. She went into Greycliff or Golden Living. I don't know what the devil the name is now. I felt bad. I told him, "She's happy here. She has her cats and her TV. All her things are here. She won't be happy in the nursing home."

I knew I wouldn't be able to take care of my mother forever. But I thought a little while longer, we could still hang out and do what we are doing. I was very careful to make sure I gave her a good breakfast before I left for work and would also leave her a big bag of peanut butter cups. I left her water and her radio on the night table, her walker near the bed, her commode down at the foot of the bed. It worked very well. She didn't fall and hurt herself or anything. I knew we couldn't do it forever, but I thought a little while longer.

He said he didn't care if she was happy. He just wanted her safe. So I said, the hell with it. If I didn't go along with it he would have me arrested for neglect. If he was going to have me arrested she may as well go because she'd have to go anyway because I wouldn't be there. I'd be locked up. The cats would probably be put to sleep. It wasn't worth the fight.