Bound: A Short Story
Created By IntSig9 With Udio AI
Lyrics
[female speaker] I am not very superstitious, but this one,,, well... A while back there was a terrible blizzard in my home town, something that only happens once every 10 years kind of thing 7 foot drifts at the end of the driveway from the snowplow. 3 feet of snow up against the doors. That kind of thing... What a lot of people don't know, is that during events like that, stray animals will do anything to get inside a house or other shelter. [female speaker] Typically the animal shelters get overrun. In this case they had to resort to advertising on t.v. and radio begging people to come and take animals in before they were forced to euthanize them. My mother has a soft heart, and she ends up going down there. She comes back with 3 cats, a dog, a couple parakeets, and a guinea pig, of all things... That's when I got a phone call from her. Would you please come over and take one of these cats? She said. One of them is too sick for me to handle with all these other animals. At the time I am 24 years old. I can barely take care of myself. But its Mom, you know? I can't refuse that. So I head over there and pick up the cat. I get a box full of some barely breathing creature buried in a blanket. "Read the directions" Mom says, handing me a bag of prescriptions. "You'll do fine." I take the cat home. Turns out some snow plow driver saw something strange come off the plow blade while clearing a parking lot at 2 a.m. He threw the cat on the floorboard and cranked the heat on the outside chance it was still alive. The first couple weeks were rough. I diligently hand fed him and gently pushed pills into his mouth. He was too weak to resist, but he was getting better. He'd been shaved to remove the ice and hopefully avoid permanent damage from frostbite. It wasn't a pretty sight but I kept at it. Finally he got enough strength back to move on his own. That's when the fun started. Turns out Gage was mostly feral, but at age 24 so was I... I suppose he found the right home. After he got on his feet, I had to chase him with a beach blanket so I could wrap him up without getting murdered, and finish out the drugs the vet gave us. He made such a miraculous recovery, Mom wanted him back... How do you say no to your mother? You don't. Gage went back with Mom. Eventually I left my hometown, and ran off to chase my dreams, like feral 24 year olds are prone to do. Young hearts let go sooner or later, and I forgot about Gage. 10 years later I have a dream about Gage. He is laying on my chest, purring while I pet him. I wake up... He is gone and I am petting nothing but empty air... A call with Mom confirms that Gage passed the day before. After all we went through, he still came for one last visit... ...to say good bye.
