The gringo who stole the cat

By Ed Rogers

Some of you may remember some time back I told of a cat that had moved into our house. She showed up one morning as I came out onto the porch to have my coffee and read the blog. She jumped in my lap and went to sleep.
    We thought she might be a stray, but then again she could belong to someone. Knowing how hard it is to become unattached to an animal, we made the choice to keep somewhat of a distance, but each morning when I opened the door there would be the cat. I have what was at one time a bodega out back and she had been sleeping there.
    After two weeks and no one asking about a missing cat, we began to let her into the house and our lives. After a month went by and we had taken the cat to the vet, had her fixed, and got her shots. Then I hear there is a story being passed around by the kids that, I’m the gringo who stole Juan’s cat.
    Not wanting any trouble and also not wanting to be known as a thief, I had our friend Alicia go with me to explain what had happen and to point out that we now had $60 invested in the cat. Juan had played a number of times in front of my fence while the cat was in the yard, but not once had he called the cat or the cat gone up to him. So he was the last person I would have thought owned the cat.
    Alicia explained the misunderstanding to Juan’s mother. I told her, through Alicia, that if indeed Juan wanted the cat back, then he must keep it at home. I couldn’t have the cat living with us and him claiming I stole her. And while they didn’t have to do it, it would be nice to recoup my money.
    Juan’s mother told Alicia, who told me: Juan kept bringing the cat inside the house and she didn’t allow pets in her house and she didn’t want the cat around. Upon which she went in and closed the door.
    I asked, “Does that mean the cat is ours?”
    Alicia pointed out, “She doesn’t want the cat and Juan lives with her, so I’d say the cat is yours.”

That should have been that. However, in July there was a Costa Rican holiday, and Juan’s two older brothers came home. This was the week-end the cat went missing for three days. I’m not sure, but I believe the cat roamed up to their house to check out the new people, as cats will do, and they kept him.
    I say this because the day the boys left, the cat came home.
    I also learned that the story of me stealing the cat was still going around. Kids have a network all their own. I began to wonder if maybe there was a wrong communication between the mother and myself, something lost in translation kind of a thing.

Juan

    This went on for awhile. I had a couple kids come to my fence and try to get the cat to come out to them. One boy who could speak some English was at the fence and I asked him why he was trying to get the cat to come to him. He informed me the cat belonged to Juan and he was going to give her back to him. I explained what the problem was and told him he needed to tell the kids to stop saying I stole the cat.
    I don’t know if that worked, but the next weekend one of the older brothers came home again for a visit. I had met him last Christmas in my house. He dealt with tourists and spoke very good English. I told him what had transpired and asked for his help in straightening the mess out. He talked to his mother and found that she didn’t want the cat.
    Once the brother got Juan outside, he asked him in front of me whether he wanted the cat, because if he did he was going have to take care of it. Juan surprised me when he said he didn’t want her.
    At that point, I wanted to know why all the kids were saying I stole his cat?
    “It was my cat even if I don’t want it, and you took it.”
    The cat is here at home and never gets locked up at someone else’s house anymore. But I guess I’m still the gringo who stole Juan’s cat.
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Copyright © 2013 by Ed Rogers

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