Aubrey Ann - The cat that learned.

She hid immediately upon getting her inside our home. But we thought "No big deal. She will come out when she calms down. " Aubrey came out to eat and use the litter box, but mostly hid for a month.

When she finally did emerge from hiding, she made herself comfortable in the house. But she didn't like us. AT ALL!

Aubrey would scream at us if we tried to pet her. Seriously. She only wanted to be left alone. We tried everything, from treats to toys. We tried to minimize the attention we gave her, just to try to keep her happy. We took her to the vet, who gave her a clean bill of health.

This went on for years. We continued to try to pet her gently, but Aubrey continued to scream at us, and we always swore it sounded like she was saying "Noooooo!!!"

After we had our unsocial cat for 4 years, she managed to get out of the house.

To this day, we still don't know how she did it. We were always very careful about open doors. But when Aubrey didn't come when we called her for feeding time, we knew she was gone. We checked all her favorite places, but she was nowhere to be seen.

The next morning I looked out the window to the front porch and caught a glimpse of her. She saw me looking at her out the window and ran off. I ran out and tried to coax her back inside, but Aubrey wasn't interested and she disappeared into the woods behind the house.

Over the next few weeks we kept trying to get her in. She stayed in the vicinity around our house, but she wouldn't come when we called her. Aubrey would stop and look at us, looking very scared, but then she would be gone again.

The temperatures were in the 50's during the day, the 30's at night. I thought she would freeze. We worried coyotes would get her, that she would starve, that she would get hit by a car.

I kept putting food on the porch, but other neighborhood cats would eat it first.

Exactly one month after Aubrey escaped, I got her back.

I saw her sniffing for the cat food on the porch. She was scratching for pieces that had fallen between the slats of wood on the porch.

I ran to get some of the soft cat food we had, opened the door quietly, and slid the food halfway between me and Aubrey. Because she was starving, her guard was down and she went for the food. I grabbed her and pulled her into the house and shut the door.

And I cried.

Aubrey was matted, thin, dirty and cold. There was blood on her collar. At first she just looked terrified, and then something changed in her eyes. A recognition came over her, and a grateful cat began to purr and rub on me.

That was 4 years ago.

Today she is the MOST loving cat. She is a lap cat, as ridiculous as that seems!

She wants to cuddle, wants to be petted, all the time! She still seems very grateful, as if some grand lesson was learned during her adventure outside.

I am very glad she survived her ordeal, but I hope to never have to repeat it. But I am very glad Aubrey learned that we love her, and that no one here means her any harm. We are glad we got her back.