On Monday I got a frantic call from my mother. She said there was a kitten under her house. She didn't know what to do. She, along with everyone else, knows that I am the "Animal Lady". I told her I would send my daughter Joni over to see what she could do. I was stuck at work.
While waiting for Joni to come my sister climbed down under the house to try and get the kitten. You have to remember that it is COLD here! It was below zero a couple of days ago. And it was dirty and cramped under the house. I'm quite impressed that my sister made the trek, not once but TWICE. On the first trip she discovered that it was stuck down a long pipe. The pipe was too long for her to reach down, so she climbed out and got a towel. After climbing back under the house she dangled the towel down the pipe and the kitten grabbed on. It was then pretty simple to haul it up.
The kitten was very little. It was probably 4-5 weeks old. It was not very happy, and it stunk pretty badly. My mom kept it until Joni showed up and then Joni brought it home with her. The poor little thing was dirty, hungry and it's eyes kept gunking up so badly that it's eyes were glued shut. Joni used her awesome nursing skills and cared for it lovingly. She bathed it (with a little help from me), fed it every few hours, cleaned it's eyes, played with it and cuddled it.
Oscar was extremely interested and wanted a closer look, but we just didn't trust him too much. One chomp and the cat would be gone. Mike made a call to the local cat shelter and we made arrangements to take the kitten there.
This place is called Four Paws and it is awesome. They have a house, very nice inside, that is set up for the cats. The cats have the run of the place. There are cat beds, pillows, caves, posts, toys, and of course food water and litter boxes all over the house. And Joni said it was very clean! It didn't smell at all, and there were cats all over. They were calm, well adjusted and very socialized. Four Paws adopts out a lot of cats. They had a sectioned off place for the younger cats and a cage for the tiny kittens. Our little rescued kitty went into the cage where he was very happy to have some playmates.
The wonderful lady at Four Paws thought there would not be a problem with our little kitty being adopted. It was cute, tiny, and it is right before Christmas. All the ingredients for a quick adoption.
The thing that was kind of sad for Joni to see was all of the unwanted cats. 95% of them were full-grown black cats. It was a sea of black. Why aren't the black ones chosen? I wish I knew. Joni and I were trying to figure that out. Maybe they need really cool names, like "Panthro", "Destroyer", or "Steve McQueen". Can you think of any cool black cat names?
6 comments:
Yeah, the big cats always make me sad too. Panthro? Did Joni come up with that one?
How could you guess? Panthro doesn't sound anything like Skittles or Snickers, other names created by the great Joni-fier
I've heard that many people are just too superstitious to take the black cats. Unbelievable. I think they're GORGEOUS! My next cat will be black for sure... and spayed or neutered.
I had a black cat when I was little. It's name was tinkerpot. Because my sister we just little and kept trying to say - you little stinkerpot and couldn't quite get it our right.
Last year when we found a stray black kitten that was injured, we took it to the vet and treated his wound and gave him antibiotics for a few weeks before taking him to the shelter. The ladies at the shelter were pleased that we'd done that because they readily admitted had he arrived wounded and in need of care, they probably wouldn't have even tried to save him but euthanize him immediately b/c the likelihood of a black cat getting adopted quickly is slim (so there is food/upkeep expense while they are there) - add to that medical expenses... and it is just not practical.
It made me very sad to hear that. I didn't realize ppl had something against black cats until then. I found out later that he was indeed adopted into a good home. Yeah! :o)
Although, I still wish that WE had been able to keep him!
Tinkerpot. I like it!
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