Found in the Woods
"So, is this how my life will be from now on?"
The question haunted me. Every sunrise I sat on my cabin porch, coffee in hand, gazing over the valley below. I could see trees and hills for miles, but there was never a person in sight. On colder days there were plumes of smoke from far-off neighbor's fireplaces, but I never saw the people. I never met any of them and I didn't particularly care to.
My mood constantly changed, daily for sure, but sometimes in the course of a few seconds. I bounced between happiness, contentment, resignation, or completely pissed off that this was how I lived. Living in the Pocono Mountains seemed like a good way to escape, but in times like this it felt more like I was lost. I had no clue as to what shaped my attitude at any given moment.
"When did I last talk to someone?"
It struck me as I asked the question that I was beginning to talk aloud to myself far too much.
I remembered calling for tech support several months back. I guess that was the last...
"What the?"
I jumped out of my chair, spilling coffee down the front of my shirt, as something touched my leg. At first glance, I feared it was a skunk, but it was an adorable black tuxedo cat lying on his back as he played with the cuff of my jeans. The white stripe on his belly would have looked very skunk-like had it been on his back.
"Hey, little guy. Where'd you come from?"
I sat so I could reach down to pet him, but he jumped onto my lap before I had a chance. He purred as loudly as a coffee grinder when I started to pet him. I swear he was trying to turn himself inside out as he affectionately rubbed against me.
"Wow! You're certainly friendly. Did you come to keep me company?"
It was amazing how uninhibited he was to come to me like that. I was always a dog person, but petting my new friend rapidly changed my mood for the better. Suddenly, I noticed the sweet odor of honeysuckle as if it wasn't there before, but it had to have been. I looked over the valley again and felt a chill go down my spine as if the beauty of the scenery captured me for the first time.
My new friend looked up at me adoringly. "You must be some kind of magic kitty. Either that, or I didn't realize just how lonely I was."
He squinted with sparkling eyes and seemed to understand. "Damn! I need to get out more often."
I looked at his red, bespeckled collar for any sign of an owner's contact information but found none. The flea and tick collar was no help either. So, we just sat and basked in the morning sunlight together.
After enjoying each other's company for about thirty minutes, I realized I needed to get my day started. "Well, my friend, I've gotta go get some work done."
I picked him off of my lap and put him down as I went to go inside, but the quick little bugger beat me through the door. "Okay. Come on in," I said with a laugh. He didn't have fleas or ticks, so I figured, why not!
I filled my coffee cup, then placed a bowl of water on the floor next to the sink. He took a drink, then followed me to my office where he jumped onto my desk and made himself comfortable on top of my printer.
"Found a warm spot, did you? I guess if you're gonna spend some time here, I should call you something. Not sure what your actual name is, though." I thought for a moment and came up with a great solution. "How about, Skunk? Not only do you remind me of one, but I think you're a bit of a stinker." He rolled and looked at me with his head upside, and purred his acceptance.
I tried to be productive, but Skunk had me wishing for someone to really talk to. The friends I had were actually my ex-wife's, so I lost them in the divorce. The damn pandemic made it impossible to have a social life or find new companions. "Maybe," I thought, "I should get a dog or cat of my own."
Late in the afternoon, my visitor arose from his warm perch, stretched the stretch of contentment, gracefully jumped to the floor and walked towards the front door.
"I assume you need to go out?" He stopped at the door, turned to me, and softly meowed his answer. I let him out and watched him run down my driveway until he disappeared. "Bye, little buddy. Come again sometime."
"Damn. Speaking out loud to myself again! Well, at least I talked to someone else today, even if it was a cat."
*****
Skunk continued to visit me faithfully each day, always arriving around 8:00 AM, and leaving somewhere close to 4:00 PM. He was having a huge positive impact on my mood, and I started looking forward to each visit. On the fifth day he visited, I decided I needed to get in contact with his owner, but isolated out here in the woods I had no idea where he lived.
I remembered something I had that might be useful. When my dad passed away, he left me all his tools, which came with box after box of miscellaneous hardware and other junk he accumulated. Dad never threw anything out if he could help it. In one of those boxes, I remembered seeing an aluminum tubular container that was about three inches long and maybe three-quarters of an inch in diameter. It had a top that screwed on and a little loop for a string or small chain.
Skunk followed me out to my cluttered garage to help me find it. Damn if it wasn't sitting on the top of the pile of junk. I found an old keychain loop that fit in the top, and I was in business. I would simply write a note, enclose it in the tube, and attach it to Skunk's collar.
For being a professional writer, I sure struggled with what to put in the note. After dozens of mental drafts, I wrote the following:
Dear neighbor,
Your sweet cat has been kind enough to visit me each of the past five days. I've come to look forward to his arrival and hope you don't mind if I share his affection. If it's okay, please let me know his name. I've been calling him Skunk, but I'm sure you have named him far more appropriately. I hope to hear from you.
Respectfully, Ryan
Skunk seemed proud of his new trinket as he purred extra hard when I looped it onto his collar. I was fairly sure it was small enough so it wouldn't get hooked in the brush, but I admit I was worried when he trotted off that afternoon.
After he left, butterflies fluttered in my stomach, and I found I couldn't sit still. "Geez, Ryan, why are you so anxious about a cat?" Making the steak I planned for dinner somehow no longer appealed to me, so a bowl of cereal would suffice.
I sat on the porch watching the late-afternoon haze over the valley and munching on my Rice Chex while I mulled over the question I had asked myself. I couldn't remember being this jittery since the day I was preparing to ask my ex-wife to marry me.
Setting the bowl aside, I leaned back into my chair, closed my eyes, and focused on the sweet aromas coming from the flora in the woods, the musty odor of wet tree bark, and the clean smell of the pine trees. My surroundings helped to calm my nerves. Pondering my emotions, I had to face the fact that I was lonelier than I wanted to admit to myself. Why else would I feel so stressed reaching out to someone, even if by a note attached to a cat?
Darkness convinced me to go inside. I sat in my reading chair and opened a book I'd been planning to enjoy. I read the first page about five times before I realized it was hopeless. I kept thinking about what reply I might receive, if any. Giving up for the evening, I retired to bed to endure a restless night.
*****
At 6:00 AM, the smell of fresh coffee did little to revive me from a sleepless night. On the porch, I watched the sun rise and reviewed today's news on Google. I kept glancing down my driveway hoping that Skunk was early today.
The little bugger scared the crap outta me when he jumped onto my lap. At least this time I wasn't holding my coffee cup.
After giving him the proper greeting of chin-scritches, I unscrewed the tube from its top and looked inside. I could see a note on pink paper. My heart skipped a beat as I recalled that I had used white paper, so I had an answer. I had anticipated the worst expecting that my neighbor was probably an old hermit, but pink paper meant my neighbor was probably female, but you never knew for sure.
I couldn't get the note out, so I fetched my tweezers and carefully removed it. Feeling like a kid at Christmas, I unrolled it to see what message I'd find.
