This from today’s Rocky Mountain News: “The spiraling number of cats found eviscerated in and around Denver is attracting media attention from around the world.” I’m reading this and I’m thinking, cats? Not really, right? Somehow I’ve missed the spiral up until now. I was unaware of cat mutilations in our area. Up to 39 by now, according to this article. And another eleven were found in Salt Lake City, although the cops don’t know if the two cases are related. The article went on to say that “the cats were mutilated with what appears to be surgical precision. In many cases, the cats were missing their organs and appeared to have been drained of blood.”
Now I’m really freaked out, and I wish Claire, our beautiful stupid cat, would come back inside. She’s out there somewhere, hunting. She’s quite the huntress. Why, every night she tries to catch the goldfish, often banging her nose against the aquarium glass. She’s beautiful. She’s stupid.
And she’s precious, at least to our odd assortment of family. Raphael loves to chase her. Max loves to feed her, pet her, and lie down next to her in the sunlight. Tre loves it when she comes to sleep on his bed at night, although he would prefer she not lie in the very middle of the bed. Mom and Dad and I love to laugh at her goldfish hunting exploits. I love the way she visits me every night while I blog. She jumps up on my lap and sits for a while, and then she’s gone, leaving a healthy dose of white cat hair behind.
The thought of someone out there who could cut Claire up with surgical precision is a tough one to grasp. The chill down my back, though, says it’s true. Another face of evil. I know, melodramatic. But I believe in the existence of evil. Beyond human failings, beyond mistakes. Evil.
And now I hear the soft flap of the cat door, and Claire is back. She brushes against my legs. I pull her up onto my lap to hear her purr. My shirt is already covered with cat hair, and my nose is tickling. Yet I’m satisfied. Evil may be out there, but some nights it’s enough just to know all your loved ones are inside.