Finding a cat
It was not often Celegorm helped out at the animal shelter, but they had been short on staff today and many of them knew that he had a good hand with animals.
"At least I could leave Huan in the safe hands of my parents while I am here today."
A family of two parents and three children had called earlier, telling him that they would come over and hopefully return home with a family member that had gone missing over the weekend while they were out to their summer cottage for cleaning and airing it out after winter.
"I thought that I knew the voice in the phone! So it is Anca who have run off?" Celegorm asked when the family entered and he saw who they were:
Dior and Nimloth, some of his neighbors further out near the woods, together with their three children.
"Yes. As you know, Celegorm, Ancalagon is a former stray that I managed to socialize right as I first met Nimloth ten years ago, and even if he is mostly a outdoor cat, he have never left the neighborhood before. Or at least, not like this."
Celegorm nodded. That huge black feline was famous in the area for his side and strength, making it very possible that he was a Northern Forest-mix, the result of a unplanned pregnancy with either a purebred sire meeting a unexpected date outside the house or a purebred dam getting knocked up by a random cat after managing to run outside before a scheduled mating, and been dumped on the streets as soon as he had stopped weaning.
"I hope that you scolded the cat-sitter for failing to keep a eye on poor Anca, he may be neutered and therefore unlikely to have run off for a date but he can still be injured in a accident."
Just in case, Celegorm checked the newly updated list of cats, on the computer, that had arrived to the shelter over the past few days. There was a black cat there, he was sure...
"When my mother called us yesterday, after that we already had spent the whole day of calling the closest animal shelters around, asking if they had gotten any cat that matched Ancalagon and even driving around in the hope of finding him somewhere outside the normal places he can be found at, she had the nerve to tell us that now we could finally get a purebred cat instead of a random stray from the streets that no one knows the lineage of!"
Ouch. Celegorm knew that Dior and his mother, a more well-off woman, were in serious disagreement about said black cat. She had reputation among his neighbors for being a bit snobbish, and preferring the same things as wealthy people in the upper classes that showed off her own wealth as a daughter to a successful fashion designer in the south. Ten-year-old Ancalagon, a former stray that her son had cared for since he was only a few months old, would really not match her taste of a elegant-looking cat.
"Right, the is a black fellow there that could be Anca, let us go and have a look."
~X~X~X~X~X~X
The cat in question had been kept separate from the communal room with the other cats, because of his size and not exactly being friendly to the staff members. Not aggressive like how feral cats would be to humans, but clearly not a cuddle bug either. That was partly why it had been impossible to try checking for a chip or ear tattoo that could reveal a possible owner, because he really did not want to be petted or touched by anyone.
"Meeeeow!"
But the moment Celegorm opened the cage door, Dior was almost thrown backwards by the huge cat jumping into his arms. Lucky, the familiar weight in his arms also ensured that he was used to it.
"Anca!" one of the twins said in joy, his brother joining in:
"It is Anca, he only do that to daddy!"
Nimloth was very emotional in happiness that it really was their cat and that he finally had been found after some very worrying days, but at the same time, she saw something displeasing:
"Holy stars! Dior, look at him! Someone must have tried to cut off his long fur to make him seem like a stray that have been in fights!"
Indeed, Ancalagon looked like someone had been holding him still forcefully and trying to almost shave off his fur in various places with an electric shaver, in what must have been a failed attempt to make him look more like a long-haired stray that was not brushed regularly.
"I am going to ask our neighbors if they saw the car of my mother somewhere. She have always been afraid of Anca and never touches him herself, but if she actually paid the cat sitter to get rid of him while we was away…"
That could actually match. The cat sitter had mentioned something about getting some extra money from another cat owner for watching her cat too last week, but what if that was a lie to explain the extra amount of money?
"Mama, papa!"
It was Elwing, their three-year-old daughter, who pointed into a cage where a litter of adoptable kittens was playing together.
"Can we get a kitten? Pleeeease?"
Judging from the unhappy look on her parents, this might not be the first she asked that question.
"No, Elwing. We arrived here to find Ancalagon and not replace him with another cat as your grandmother suggested."
"But he is big and mean!" the toddler protested loudly, then backing a few steps when the cat meowed from the arms of her father.
"Because you are not respecting him and letting him be alone like your brothers do. Ancalagon is trying to show you that you are crossing a limit when he slaps you with front paw. In his eyes you are a disrespectful kitten that needs a lesson."
Celegorm was surprised when Elurin and Elured suddenly held up some paper money to him.
"Our pocket money might not be enough, but this is for the food Anca ate during his stay here."
Well, that showed that the parents made sure to raise their children right when it came to social manners.
"Ah, thank you. It is a welcomed donation for the cat food and litter that is being served to the cats this week."
Nimloth brought the huge cat carrier for Ancalagon from the car, and they could bring him home. Celegorm did not doubt that Dior's mother was going to be forbidden to be a guest in their home from now on, if this had really been an attempt to get rid of Ancalagon before the family found him. Some people really did not think ahead of how cats often was beloved family members and how distressing it was to have a missing pet.