Crazy Lady Thinks Her Mother Is In A Cat

Two weeks ago Hubcap's cat, Dobby, went missing. Yes, his name is Dobby after Dobby the house elf in Harry Potter. Hubcap also has a cat named Harry Potter.

I became aware of Dobby's disappearance when I received an email from Hubcap a saying, "Still no sign of Dobby" at which time I had to ask what had happened to him. Hubcap explained that he had been missing for a week and insisted that she had already told me this. She hadn't. I would have remembered something like that.

Dobby is the cat that Frank rescued from the middle of the road. Every pet at the zoo has an interesting story. One night about 3 years ago Frank was driving through Shark River Hills when a bunch of kittens scurried out of the road. Only one didn't move. He just sat there in the road, the headlights shining in his eyes.

Frank got out and picked up the little kitten. He was a mess. He had an eye infection and the puss had glued his eyes shut. He hadn't moved out of the road when the car came because he couldn't see.

Frank brought the kitten home and put him on the bed. They fell asleep and Hubcap came home to see some puss covered, rat like thing sleeping on her bed. WHAT IS THAT?!? Hubcap asked in her quietest inside voice. Frank, half asleep, told her not to worry, he had brought it home. But Hubcap was worrying, needing further clarification as to why Frank had brought home a tiny puss covered rat and put it in her bed.

Once Frank explained that it was a sick cat, and not a sewer rat in the bed, Hubcap felt only slightly better. He was covered in fleas and obviously infected so now the other zoo pets would have to be decontaminated. Bugs are not accepted on any animals at the zoo.

Hubcap tried to clean up the tiny kitten. She washed his eyes and tried to clean his legs which were also caked with puss from his futile attempts to clean his own face. She was afraid that he was too sick and wouldn't be able to recover from the infection. Frank was instructed to take him to the vet the following morning and find out his chances of recovering; if they weren't good, he was to have him put to sleep so he didn't have to suffer.

Dobby made a full recovery and grew up to have the biggest head I've ever seen on a cat. My mom has a chubby dog named Lola. Dobby was her pet. Lola was devastated when he went missing.

Hubcap posted signs around the neighborhood, called the animal shelter and sent Frank looking for his body. No sign of Dobby.

There is this lady who lives down the street, I don't know her name but she's old and a cat stealer. We call her "the crazy cat lady".

You see, growing up we had a cat named Mr. Kitty. He had only one eye and a pierced ear. We didn't pierce his ear - when we rescued him from an alley in Avon, his ear had already been pierced. We had to have one of his eyes removed when it turned black and the vet said it might implode into his brain and kill him. Like I said, every pet at the zoo has a story.

Mr. Kitty was an awesome cat. The lady down the street thought so too. She would drive slowly down our street, banging a spoon on a can of cat food until Mr. Kitty came running. Then she would feed him on our front lawn.

One day Hubcap was outside when this happened. The lady told my mom that she really liked Mr. Kitty. Yes, Hubcap responded, so does my family. Can I have him? the lady asked. Hubcap explained that she could not have our cat; he was our family's cat; her children would be very sad if they didn't have their cat. Hubcap picked up Mr. Kitty and went inside the house.

When Dobby went missing, Hubcap surmised that the crazy lady had stolen him. When she put up posters in the neighborhood, the crazy lady called to say that she had seen Dobby a few days earlier. She added that she had a cat that looked very similar to Dobby but it wasn't him; it was her cat.

Hubcap instructed Frank to go to the crazy lady's house and demand to see her Dobby look alike.

The next morning, Hubcap was drinking her coffee in the kitchen when she saw him, walking across the bridge in the backyard, it was Dobby! He came back after being gone for two full weeks. He wasn't skinny and he wasn't dirty.

I'm not saying the crazy lady stole Dobby. I'm just saying she's a cat stealer.