Goodbye, Bungee Jumper

by Mewsette

I told my own story of when I was lost, for last month's story. It was true, as all my stories are. I know another one.

He had been named Benji. But one day, as a mere kitten, he had sailed fearlessly off the top of a low shed, with a long. papery cornstalk leaf he'd found blown up there stuck to his fur. After that they called him Bungee Jumper. He was a Harlequin cat, though he didn't know it. Mostly white, with a black tail, two black spots, and a black cap set rakishly sideways in the fur of his head. His eyes were yellow, very unusual eyes. They made him look fierce, when he was actually a most shy and gentle cat.

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Bungee lived mostly outside at a house in the country. He liked it that way. He could rarely be coaxed inside by humans unless it was dinner time or very cold out. He had his own secret places he would go, and he loved his home, but the part he loved was the outside.

Then his human made the bad mistake, in his opinion, of moving him away from his home to a different one far away. Bungee was frightened and disoriented by the move, for he was born in that home he loved and he didn't know there could be other homes. He tore the covering off the bottom of the bedsprings in the new house, and hid in there for most of two weeks. There was a lot of hammering and noise going on outside.

One day after it stopped, Bungee was allowed to go out the back door and see what all the noise had been about. No longer did the door lead down a step into his own yard! It led to a porch, all closed up with screen and lattice! This was a very unacceptable state of affairs to Bungee. Had he not made it perfectly clear all the 8 years of his life that he was not a cat to be closed up? He looked out the screen. Four steps down, no problem. But he jiggled and bumped at the screen door, and it would not open! How could he get down those steps?

That evening he refused to go back in the house. It wasn't cold out, so his human let him stay on the porch. When all was silent and dark within the house, Bungee's yellow eyes began to search upward, seeking a place to jump from to the outside. As the hours passed, he scaled every inch of the porch to the roof, searching. At last, he found a place way at the top in a corner where he could work the screen loose. He tore and pulled at the screen until he got enough of it away from the nails. Bungee was a large cat, and he needed a large space for his take-off. It took a long time to make one.

When the space was ready, Bungee didn't look back. Maybe he simply needed his freedom. But I think he needed to start his journey and find his home. His home was calling to him to come back. Bungee sailed out of the opening to the ground below. And he began his journey.

Searching for Bungee was fruitless. There never was any sign of him. His human called the ones who lived in his old home, and asked them to watch for him. She knew what he wanted, too. He wanted to go home.

I know this story to tell because Bungee was my brother. I had been lost myself before he was, but I came back. Bungee never did.