{"id":3640,"date":"2014-10-03T12:43:17","date_gmt":"2014-10-03T19:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.coolkarma.com\/dharma\/?p=3640"},"modified":"2014-10-03T12:48:05","modified_gmt":"2014-10-03T19:48:05","slug":"wild-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/?p=3640","title":{"rendered":"Wild World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cat<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When Cali came to us, I asked the rescue group if she was a door runner.\u00a0 At the time we lived in Coyote nation and outdoor cats were on the dinner menu every night of the week.\u00a0 They assured me she was an indoor cat, however the foster family that had her for the last few months did allow her to go on their outside patio.\u00a0 Needless to say Cali was not only a door runner but a master of camouflage as she would wait behind potted plants or vertical blinds and dash out under your feet anytime you opened the back door.\u00a0 But we did a good job corralling her back time and time again.<\/p>\n

In our new home, there are less coyotes but more fast cars and busy streets.\u00a0 Cali seemed content to sit next to Dan on an adjacent swivel chair and watch him all day long.\u00a0 But she did seem to cry a lot … and the litter box seemed like only a suggestion in her mind.\u00a0 And since our back yard is small and cinder block contained we decided to let her out onto the back patio every now and Zen … which soon turned into every dang day and eventually much of the night.<\/p>\n

For a long while, the routine would be to let Ms Cali out in the morning where she could bask in the sun near the sunflowers and then Dan would dutifully go to fetch her back in after midnight … only to lock her in one room because she still had issues thinking inside the (litter) box.<\/p>\n

Cali is a big girl, I’m not sure what she weighs but I’d guess 346 pounds.\u00a0 She couldn’t possibly jump over those cinder block walls so we weren’t worried about her leaving the sanctuary of our koi pond and patio.\u00a0 Though we noticed over the last few months that Cali had a few admirers that would come calling on her.\u00a0 She’s fixed, so its not an issue of more stray cats and it seemed harmless enough.\u00a0 After all what could happen?<\/p>\n

Then one night this week I woke up at 2 in the morning to find Dan and the redneck searching in the back with flashlights.\u00a0 Cali was no where to be found.\u00a0 I joined them for the better part of a half hour before agreeing that she was simply not in the yard.\u00a0 It seemed unfathomable.\u00a0 How could she scale the wall?\u00a0 Where would she want to go?\u00a0 We prepared ourselves for the worst … and were stunned to see her basking in the sun the next morning near the patio door … asking for food of course.<\/p>\n

But our relief was short lived, as we watched her chow down and then dash off … up … and over .. the cinder block wall.\u00a0 Cali had apparently filed for emancipation and would no longer stay put within the safety of our home.<\/p>\n

“Look her up!” my college girl insisted, as I told her the news when she came to see me this week.\u00a0 I explained to her that we tried .. but Cali didn’t want to be indoors anymore.\u00a0 That she cried non-stop and peed everywhere when we tried to contain her to the house.\u00a0 “She’ll get use to it.\u00a0 You need to keep her home.”\u00a0 She insisted.\u00a0 “Yeah, I know the feeling of wanting to do that when your little girl grows up and goes to college.”\u00a0 And we both smiled and hugged each other gently as I walked her to her car.<\/p>\n

\"caliTN\"<\/a>Cali didn’t come home this morning at all, and I am quickly reminded of the dead squirrel that my boyfriend and I picked up off the ashphault outside our house yesterday afternoon.\u00a0 “One day this could be Cali.”\u00a0 I said to him.\u00a0 He acknowledged the same in his elaborate monosylabic manner.\u00a0 “Ye.”\u00a0 And though we’d like to think we can control everything in our world … that somehow by our will alone we can keep everyone we love from insult or injury.\u00a0 In Truth we can’t even spare our own heart ache or heart attack.\u00a0 Oh, baby, baby, it’s a wild world and while it may be hard to get by just upon a smile …. sometimes all we have to offer to our Self and each other is the grin on our chin as we do our best to allow and surrender again and again.
\n