Every stray is a pet, dangit!
Her name is Moo, (black and white, like a dairy cow), not quite 2 months old, she has... 1 extra toe on every single foot, she's so tiny, her paws are so huge, and took a bit of getting used to! mitten-cat, or boxer cats, they're apparently called. My first
We fear she was rather mistreated for being a mutant-moo before we found her, judging by the scarring on her feet, it seems someone was a little more than disturbed by her extra thumbs (she was dumped at the metro-subway station above ground and had been fending for herself for God knows how long. My mother rides the subway home from work occasionaly, and for the past week has called mentioned this little waif of a kitten she keeps seeing, but fails to manage to get close enough to feed, or pet, or help. She (the cat) had no fear whatsoever of being less than a foot away from huge cars roving in and out of the very busy parking lot, but she was absolutely petrified of people. She kept crying to them, then running away and cowering into the sewer nearby. Obviously starving, a bag of bones, flea infested, several cuts and scars, and the inability to control her bowel movements, she was in a sad state emotionally.
Not particularly looking for another cat to add to the family, but not being able to ignore the tug on my heart when I heard her story, I sat on the edge of the sidewalk at the subway station waiting for people to leave, and for the noise to calm down, all the while talking to her inside the storm drain. When she poked her head out and looked at me, my heart broke.
(I'm in tears as I write this!) Who knew such a tiny kitten could make such a huge impact. She looked so lost, and so worried. More worry than any kitten should have to ever have on her shoulders. My mom repeatedly told me she tried and failed at catching her, and was beginning to lose hope of being able to help her. I wasn't having the best of luck at the moment either. Every time I inched closer, she shrank further away, with the most pitiful mew. With this in mind, I rationalized with God, and figured I'd leave it in his hands.
I got down on all fours, as close as I could to her without spooking her, looked her in the eyes, and made her my very first promise:
that she wasn't going to like it at first, and might hate me for catching her and not understand it, and she might be very very very scared, but that if she let me take her home, I will make her the happiest little kitten for the rest of her furry days, and love her forever.
Without a fight, or another word, I crawled over and wrapped her up in an enormous beachtowel that I had brought with, and felt her little body "give up" and consent to being cat-napped. I remember quietly saying a prayer of thanks, while in the back of my mind, wondering what I had just gotten myself into. The entire car-ride home she kept her eyes locked with mine, wrapped up in that towel. I could feel her shaking, and I could see it, but I couldn't hear her crying. She was plum exhausted. I kept kissing her dirty little head and reassuring her the whole way home.
I've tried varying combinations with her comfort in mind, and out of the entire 4 bedroom 2 story home, she seems more than content with living in my room, and my room alone. It took almost a week for her digestive system to purge itself into anything
close to a daily routine. There were many moo-patties to scrape off of the floor in the beginning. And after being de-wormed, and other than being severely malnourished and underweight, she was given a clean bill of health. She favors one front paw, that as a best guess, was broken earlier in life that has healed, but apparently the memory hasn't quite yet. We're very careful around that particular paw. She isn't a picky eater at all, sadly, she will eat anything and everything! (my other rescue kitty is very picky, but little moo doesn't seem to ever lose the mentality of eating whatever you can find, whether it appeals to you or not.)
It only took about a week for her coat to completely transform. She is a fluffy fluffy white with black splotches. (it was a thin yellowish-stringy matted mess when we first picked her up). And while she is perfectly content never leaving my room or my company, I do have 2 other cats, that are causing an issue!
One elderly alpha cat, and another rescue-forever kitten, that's going on almost a year old now!
The little one has become fast playamtes with Little Moo, but the older one, is the reason I'm posting today. Alpha kitty will wait for me to go to work, or leave for any length of time, (sometimes she gets brave and sneaks in while I'm IN THERE
) and attacks moo!
This is not your normal kitty-spat. This is... full 20 lbs of elderly fluff with a vengence, all claws, banshee-style cat screams, full frontal assault. Poor little moo takes awhile to calm down every time alpha cat comes to "visit". And twice so far, she has done some considerable damage. Moo took 2 very bad scratches to her nose that took a few days to heal.
When I came home last night, I found her cowering under a chair downstairs (out of her room!) and she wouldn't answer me. When I pulled her out, she had an accident on the floor, was a nervous wreck, and had quite the nasty battle-wound on her eyelid. I took her upstairs and cleaned it gently, kissed her over and over, cried, and apologized.
- I feel so responsible for this little one, I promised to keep her safe and happy, and I feel like I'm betraying her on nights like last night when she looks up to me with those pleading eyes!
Her eye is untouched, the scratch you can see clearly when she closes her eyes, isn't major, and will be gone in a few days. But I stayed awake last night holding her, thinking how easily it could have been so much worse. Alpha cat has never been disagreeable, grumpy and old, sure, but never like this. I really don't understand where this hatred is coming from. The other resuce-kitty absolutely
loves having a little sister/playmate. We keep moo's food/water/litter in my bedroom, so that she is content. And she seems, with the exception of the life-threatening force laying in wait outside of my door, to be in heaven in there, with absolutely no inclination to leave, explore, or expand her environment.
Alpha cat will not live much longer, she is nearing 14 years of age as it is, arthritic, sleeps a lot, is losing her eyesight, walks at a much slower pace, etc. Little moo would go out of her way to avoid running into her if she were gven free roam of the house (I've tried a few times before, under supervision), but with this kind of violence going on, I will never be able to forgive myself if something happened to her while I wasn't there.
She is as bright and cheerful and energetic as little kitties come now, and has completely changed since I brought her home. She is always waiting to greet me when I get home from work, bouncing always bouncing! -comes when I call her, sleeps wrapped up around my neck at night, wraps herself around my ankle when I try to leave
and helps with
everything! Folding laundry, (she is the sock-sorter-specialist), never leaves a mess anymore, and it is a true pleasure to be a part of her tiny life. She leads such a small world in my room, that I worry I'm doing her an injustice. What boggles me is,
it seems she couldn't be happier!
I always leave the door open while I'm home, if she ever wants to come out and explore more, I never want to stand in her way. But she has made it very clear (even to the other rescue-kitty) she knows that when it's time to play with moo, she brings the toys in with her, and they never go past the door.
I don't want to take on the mentality of "wait for alpha cat to die, and she'll be safer", because little moo will probably always be looking over her shoulder. There's no real simple solution to cats getting along at such different stages in age, when they came from such different lifestyles either. I guess it just feels better to get this out.
I feel so bound to this little moo, and am so wrapped around her unusually large little-paw, that I wanted to share my story with you guys.
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..assuming I can't find a cord to connect it to the computer, is there any way around it?
