Kitties once more

Or how to spend a portion of a long drive preoccupied with a cat.

I went with my friend Steve on Monday on a two hour plus drive into New Hampshire. We also had to traverse a part of Vermont in order to get to the location in New Hampshire, on the west side of the state. The major route north is route 91, which is a nice drive, especially at this time of the year.

We made it to our destination easily enough (Dartmouth College) and he made the drop-off, and we started to head back home.

As the passenger, I got to look around more. We'd seen a lot of roadkill on the way up to NH, and it wasn't any different on the way home--foxes, possums, squirrels--it's always an unpleasant reminder that cars and wild animals don't mix very well. So imagine my surprise at one point, when, glancing into the ditch that runs parallel to the highway, I saw a cat. This cat wasn't really a full grown cat--as someone who has long been owned by the feline species I answer with some authority--it looked more like a 6-9 month old, with its slenderness and long, gangly legs. I think it was probably a male, only because it was white with orange, tabby spots. I yelled to Steve that this kitten-cat was there and alive, but we were too far from the location to stop. I called the 911 operator, and told them about it, and they said they would keep an eye out for it. But then Steve did an amazing thing. He got off at the next exit, and went back on the highway north, to see if we could rescue the kitten.

Alas, kitty was gone. We finally figured out that there was some hint of civilization behind the wooded area next to the highway, and kitty wasn't so lost and abandoned after all. At least he wasn't spread all over the highway, as so many other animals were that day.

We finally got home late, but at least I didn't worry about the kitty anymore--I can only hope that he got home without any mishaps.