The Silent One
by Katherine Najacht
My husband and I live in a college town. Sadly, students frequently abandon their pets upon graduating. It was the weekend after summer classes ended and my husband and I went on a walk through a student apartment complex not far from our home. We heard her before we saw her. And when we finally spotted her, we could not believe such a tiny animal could make such a ruckus! She was crying louder than I’d ever heard a kitten—or cat!—cry before.
I scooped her up from next to a dumpster, and we promptly took her home. She wasn’t supposed to stay with us (we already had four cats at the time), but my husband made the grave mistake of giving her a temporary name—Tramp. Our plan was to turn her over to the humane society—obviously, that never happened.
Soon after we decided to keep her, she went to her first vet’s appointment. We learned that she was in rough shape—at five weeks old, she weighed only a little over half a pound, had fleas, lice, and worms. A pretty rotten start!
But it’s only gotten better. Three years later, she remains one of the sweetest, most grateful cats ever. For a kitten who cried louder than I’d ever heard, she now rarely makes a sound. My husband says it’s because she used her entire voice to alert us; I say it’s because she just doesn’t have to cry anymore.