The Cat Lady

The Cat Lady (#TNTHorrorContest)

"See what I mean?" Harold was gesturing at the house next door while talking to the Animal Control officers who stood on his porch.

Harold was the one who filed the complaint and Officer Anna Martinez could see why. The smell was god-awful! How could anyone stand it?

"How long has the smell been coming from there?" asked her partner, Officer Tim Brown.

"A couple of weeks, maybe a month," Harold replied, scratching his head to remember, "I reported it to the police, but they won't do anything unless something happened to the old lady."

"What does your neighbor say . . ." Anna looked on her report for the name, "Adele Jameson. What does she say when you mention it to her?"

"She won't answer the door," Harold answered, turning his head away from the smell, "I hear movement in there, so I know she hears me. I even called her son to come and take care of it and he said he would but I ain't seen him. I guess he could've come while I was at work, but I don't see his Jeep and nothing's changed so I guess he doesn't give a shit about his momma."

Anna jotted down some more notes then she and Tim thanked Harold and went next door. As they walked up the sidewalk to the front porch they could see a lot of cats in every windowsill, some sitting on top of one another like cats sometimes do. They opened the screen door and knocked on the front door. The door creaked on the hinges and swung gently open. It wasn't shut all the way and the knocking was enough to open it.

"Oh my God!" Tim almost shrieked, "Back up and put the masks on!"

They closed the screen door, backed up, and got out the masks from their bags. In the few moments before they put them on, the odor had wafted out the open door and almost made them both throw up.

"That's got to be a lot of cat feces and urine," Anna said to Tim, her voice muffled behind the mask.

Tim nodded and they stepped into house. They were surprised that not a single cat tried to bolt through the door. That was usually the case, cats always wanted escape. They shut the screen door but left the front door open to help air out the house.

"Hello!" Tim called out, "Mrs. Jameson, it's Animal Control! Your door was open."

They listened but heard nothing except for a lot of meows and purrs. They looked around and were stunned. There were easily at least thirty cats just in the front room alone. Surprisingly they looked clean and well fed. Several of them padded over to the newcomers and rubbed their bodies against their legs, staring up at their faces.

"Well, they don't seem to be mistreated," Anna said, "They're in better shape than most. And very friendly." She reached down to pet one.

Tim nodded in agreement and they continued on into the house. The dining room was also clean but another fifteen or so cats lounged on the table while others were draped on the chairs or wandered around under the table. They all looked up when Tim and Anna walked in.

"I still haven't seen any waste," Tim said.

"I wonder where the smell's coming from then?" Anna asked.

They came up to a room with the door propped open so it was only open about 8 or 10 inches; just enough for a cat to get through. Tim pushed the door open and they both gasped. The carpet was completed shredded and the bare concrete was visible everywhere. All the bedding from the single bed was also shredded and mattress stuffing was topping the piles of cat feces that covered the other side of the room. Somehow the cats were taking mouthfuls of the stuffing across the room to try to bury their waste. Neither of them had ever seen a cat act that way before. Anna pointed to the window.