Four years after my orange cat vanished, I called his name in a strange parking lot and a broken little animal froze mid-step.chfr
I was delivering a bag of groceries to a coworker who had hurt her ankle when I saw him.
At first, he was just a flash of dirty orange moving between two parked cars. He was thin. Too thin. His tail looked like a piece of rope dragging behind him.
I had seen hundreds of orange cats over the past four years.
Every time someone posted a blurry picture online, my heart jumped. Every time a neighbor called and said, “I think I saw your cat,” I dropped whatever I was doing.
It was never him.
So I should have kept driving.
Instead, I hit the brakes so hard the grocery bag tipped over on the passenger-side floor.
The cat stopped near a row of trash cans.
His left ear bent forward slightly.
I opened my door.
“Nacho?”
The cat froze.
Four years earlier, I had come home after a late shift and found my front door standing open. Someone had broken into the house and left the place a mess.
A lamp was knocked over. Drawers had been pulled out. The small television in my bedroom was gone.
But none of that mattered.
Nacho was missing.
I ran through the neighborhood until after midnight, calling his name. I checked under porches, behind sheds, beneath cars and inside every open garage I could find.
By sunrise, I could barely speak.
Nacho had been with me through the worst years of my life.
I adopted him the week after my mother died. A year later, when my marriage ended, he slept against my chest every night. When I cried, he would press his forehead against my chin as if he were trying to hold me together.
People called him a pet.
To me, he was family.
For months, I hung flyers and checked every local shelter. I drove through nearby towns on my days off. I joined neighborhood groups and posted his picture again and again.
Orange male cat. White patch under chin. Small crescent-shaped scar on left ear.
People tried to be kind.
After six months, they told me I should prepare myself.
After a year, they suggested I adopt another cat.
