A Family Tale of Stolen Hearts and a Feline Felony

Lewis separated his two kids. The youngest son, his shirt torn and hair disheveled, looked away. This was their second fight in a week. A family meeting was overdue.

Broken glass littered the ground. The back door remained open.

Lewis’s face reddened. He took a deep breath, ready to show his boys his fury. But as he started to yell, a white and grey cat appeared between them and meowed. Everyone went silent and watched as it strolled up to Lewis. He froze.

The family wanted a pet, but Lewis could never afford one. It had a green collar. Did it belong to someone? He looked up to see his kids smiling. The cat purred.

Without thinking, he signaled to the boys to close the back door, and they immediately did. The cat was trapped. Were they catnappers now? The boys cheered and canceled their video game and phone plans that night. They had cat plans.

The next morning, Lewis found the cat sleeping with his youngest son and smiled. 

He didn’t know much about cat toilet training, so he approached the problem with the delicate care it deserved. He opened the back door.

The cat immediately trotted away and out of sight. Lewis imagined his family’s life with the furry addition. He dried up his tears and went inside to get the boys ready for school. He left the door open.

A couple of hours later, the cat returned. Lewis smirked and inspected the cat’s collar. Joey. He removed the collar and tossed it into the trash. It didn’t look like a Joey.

Later that day, the cat returned, and the day after that, and the day after that. Every night, he slept with Lewis’s youngest son. The cat was no longer a prisoner. Worse, he was a part of the family.

Lewis went to the pet store a week later to get cat supplies. Feeding it human food felt wrong and expensive. He also suspected cats disliked drinking water from shot glasses and tea cups. 

On his way out of the store, he saw a poster on the window. Missing cat. Joey. One little boy at home is miserable and wants him back home.

“What a tragedy,” Lewis muttered as he shook his head.

He walked out of the store with the cat supplies and headed home. Two excited boys were waiting for him.

Lewis cherished Joey’s company. The fights stopped. It got close to his youngest son, and his lovely, long-lost giggle returned. Things were good.

Two happy months later, the cat left for his morning bathroom break and never returned—typical Joey.

Lewis never stole Joey. On the contrary, Joey stole their hearts.

The fights returned. Lewis did the only thing he could do. He made a sign and stuck it on the pet store window. Missing cat. Joey. Two little boys at home are miserable and want him back home.