When we arrived at the Best Western Turquoise Inn & Suites in Cortez, Colorado to spend the night, we checked in, parked, and started unloading the car. Across the street, coming from a tree next to the building, we heard a cat. This cat was crying, meowing, making a terrible noise. I said to my mother, “That cat sounds like it’s in heat.” She said, “It sounds like it’s in pain!”. I replied, “Same thing, isn’t it?”

Later that night, when I went outside to smoke, I saw the little kitty lying on the sidewalk. Apparently, he had gotten down out of the tree. He was a little white and grey kitty-cat. He looked at me and I looked at him, and he stayed there until I went back inside.

The next morning we packed up the car and headed off 40 miles down the road to the Four Corners Monument. Four Corners is the only place in the United States where four states meet in a perfect 90 degree angle. The states are Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. The monument is on the Navajo reservation, and is only open during certain hours. Also, there are little stands set up where some of the Navajos and nearby Ute Indians sell beads, crafts, food, and other items.

When we turned off the highway onto the little dirt road toward the monument, I heard a faint “meow” sound. I looked at my mother and said, “That sounds like the cat from last night!” She said, “It can’t be!” As we continued up the road, we continued to hear little cat whimpers. When we pulled into the parking lot I said, “I swear, I think that cat is in this car!”

We got out of the car, and sure enough, emanating from the hood region was little cat noises! The three of us just stood there looking at each other trying to figure out how we were going to get the cat out. I didn’t want to open the hood, because I thought the cat would jump out on me and eat me alive. My mother didn’t want to open the hood because she thought the cat would have two legs, one ear, and no tail. We tried to find someone in the visitor’s center who could help us figure out what we should do. No one was there. One passerby said we needed to open the hood, grab the cat, and break its neck quickly to put it out of its misery. Finally, I found a Native American gentleman tending to his stand who came over and popped the hood. As soon as he did, a fully-intact kitty-cat jumped out of the hood and straight under our car. I immediately named the cat “Cortez”, since that is where he came from.

We went over to the monument and took our pictures, and I shopped around in the little stands that were set up. When we went back over to the car to leave, my mother looked under the car to make sure we wouldn’t run over the cat. Cortez was GONE! It didn’t take long to figure out where he was, as little cat whimpers could again be heard coming from under the hood. We popped the hood, and although you could hear him, he was nowhere to be found. We tried coaxing him with “here, kitty, kitty”. I tried banging on the fender. A couple with a dog came over to see if the dog could help scare him out. Basically, everyone on the reservation knew that there was a cat in our car, but no one really had any good ideas of how to get him out. We worked for at least 15 minutes, but to no avail. That cat was not coming out. I thought he was going to end up coming back to Tennessee with me!

Finally, a couple came over to help. The guy was on the ground looking under the car as best he could (the car was low to the ground). His wife was looking down through the hood. Finally she said, “I see him!” and she pointed him out to me. I finally saw a glimpse of him. About that time, the guy was trying to get out from under the car and hit against the bottom of the wheel well. When he did, the cat jumped around. I screamed, “Do that again!” The guy hit the car a couple more times, and the cat jumped out of our car and made a beeline straight to the car of the couple who was helping us, and jumped up under their hood!

Had it been anyone else, I would have just driven off and thought “You deal with it!” As it was, since it was the couple who had helped us, we couldn’t just leave. They popped the hood, and the guy yelled to his wife to hand him a bottle of water. He poured water all over the cat, and finally the cat ran out of their car and straight into the visitor’s center. I yelled to my mother and papaw to “Get in the CAR!” We exchanged pleasantries with the couple that helped. They jumped in their car, we jumped in ours, and both raced off the reservation as quickly as we could.

Somewhere on the Navajo reservation near the Four Corners Monument is a white and grey cat named Cortez who has already used eight of his lives.