THE McELROY ZOO: Meet Bessie, the beautiful girl who’s still scared

By David McElroy · July 24, 2011

Bessie has lived her entire life in fear.

Well, maybe that’s not entirely correct, but she’s at least lived her life just on the edge of fear. She can go from relaxed and happy to tense and terrified in a split second. She’s not just scared of people who might try to hurt her. She’s even scared of the one person in the world who’s fed her and taken care of her for two and a half years — me.

I wrote about Bessie’s sister, Molly, last week. You can read that story if you’d like, because most of it applied to Bessie, too.

Bessie was one of two kittens who appeared outside my door with their mother about two and a half years ago. They wouldn’t let me touch them or even get near them. I still have no idea where they came from. They were beautiful — as you can see in the picture that’s with last week’s story — but they clearly had a lot of fear in them.

The mother cat disappeared one day and I’ll never know what happened to her. It created a real dilemma for me. I certainly didn’t want or need two more cats — and these didn’t seem terribly adoptable — but I couldn’t just leave them outside alone.

You know from last week’s story that I wasn’t able to find homes for them, simply because they were too scared of people. (The top photo on this story is when she was still a kitten.) Most people just aren’t going to put up with a pet who runs almost every time a human approaches, because most people are much more interested in what they can get from the animal than in providing a home. I understand — and I’m not going to judge them — but that’s not the way I feel about it.

She’s still terrified, for the most part. It’s especially bad when there’s something going on that she doesn’t understand. For instance, in the picture above on the right, she was having to go to the vet because of swelling on her lip. (You can sort of see a pink swollen area in the picture.) She has a look of terror in her eyes, not just a normal fear, but an absolute terror that something terrible is going to happen.

I have no idea whether she simply inherited all of this fear from her mother or if terrible things happened around her as a kitten. She might have seen experienced her mother dying. I’ll never know. She was named Bessie in honor of my grandfather’s sister. My Great Aunt Bessie had more natural fear in her than any woman I’ve ever known. She was a wonderful woman, but she couldn’t shake being afraid of the world. She was a natural to lend her name to this new Bessie.

She’s very happy today, living with her sister, Molly, and her three nieces — Charlotte, Emily and Anne. During the day, they also spend time with Thomas, William and Dagny. As long as the humans stay away, this scared girl is happy.

There’s one odd exception to her fear. I have no idea why this happens, but it’s amazing when it does. Every now and then, she apparently feels a need to be touched and rubbed. It’s no more than a few times a year — and it’s only when she decides she’s ready.

She will come close to me, but then run who I reach out my hand. Then she’ll do it again, this time lying on her side and exposing her tummy. When I reach for her, she panics and runs. This can continue over a period of a day or two. Then, finally, she gives in.

She’ll let me touch her and scratch her side and tummy. She’ stretch and roll her body on the bed and purr. Every now and then when this happens, she’ll even let me pick her up and hold her while I scratch her tummy. When it’s going on, she purrs loudly and makes little sounds of pleasure.

Then — as suddenly as it started — it’s over. She’s finished with trusting me for awhile. She withdraws, pulls away. It’s frustrating, because I like to be able to make her happy and purr. But I don’t let it bother me too much, because I know she’ll be back in her own time. Even though she’s scared — and even though she wouldn’t want to admit it, if cats could “admit” things — she needs me. It’s not just for food.

She needs love and attention. She just needs it on a schedule that most people wouldn’t put up with. I’m happy that she trusts me at least that much.

Editor’s note: If you enjoyed meeting Bessie, you might enjoy previous stories and pictures aboutMolly, Oliver, Munchkin, Sam, Maggie, Henry, Lucy, Amelia, Charlotte and Emily.

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Here’s another reason to appreciate the cats in your life: New research involving 93 countries found that places with more cats per person also tended to have happier people. The researchers say the finding fits with previous evidence that living with pets can reduce loneliness and stress while providing companionship, emotional attachment and social support. The study doesn’t prove that cats cause greater happiness, but it certainly adds to the evidence that sharing your home — and your life — with a cat might be good for you.

The company that owns Facebook and Instagram is heavily promoting its new AI-based software assistant called Muse, but people who are using it as it was designed are incredibly foolish. An early adopter of the software discovered that a few days ago when he advertised an item for sale on Facebook Marketplace — and he inadvertently gave Muse full authority to act on his behalf. The software agreed to a lowball offer made by another Facebook user and then gave that man the home address of the man for whom he was an agent. The software told the buyer that the seller was home and waiting for him. When the buyer showed up and waited angrily, the would-be buyer left an angry review for the man. And this angry man had the seller’s home address. It was only well after that that the software reported what it had done and admitted it had made a mistake. I won’t be putting that much power into the hands of any software. I think anyone who agrees to such terms is a fool. And the software’s user agreement says you’re responsible for purchases the software makes in your name. Nope.

Meet my new girlfriend. Her name is Meg. And she’s my little sweetheart. A couple of months ago, a neighbor across the street told me about a new stray in the neighborhood that she and I were both soon feeding. The cat had been very skittish about contact and she had a lot of scabs and parasites in her fur, but a trip to the vet last week revealed that she was otherwise in good health. The vet estimates her to be 1 to 2 years old. I named her for Meg Murry, the 13-year-old protagonist of Madeleine L’Engle’s wonderful book, “A Wrinkle in Time.” (Please read the book. Don’t watch the horrible movie.) Since we lost Lucy almost a year ago, it seems appropriate that we finally have a new little girl to join the household. She’s already captured my heart, but Alex, Oliver and Sam aren’t there quite yet.

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It turns out that the radical far left has been training “Antifa cats” to sabotage anything important to Donald Trump. Everything he did was perfect. Honest. It was all the cats’ fault. Arrest all the cats! This is the latest of my ridiculous satirical shorts. Please go watch it. Then “like” it and subscribe. Please. I’m begging you. (Too much?) Although a couple of the previous videos have had views in the hundreds, most have still been seen by fewer than 20 people. So I seem to be having trouble letting people know that page exists.

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