TODAY'S BIG STORY: Mama Cat and Baby Kitten are together again! What a crazy story! On Monday afternoon, I decided to look again for the missing cats ~ the fourth day in a row. I parked my car on the side of the road and called for the cats. After ten minutes of Here Kitty Kitty's, I could hardly believe my ears! I heard a low, hoarse meow from a clump of tall grass. I kept calling, and Lucy reluctantly walked out into the open parking area. Lucy was alive and moving closer to me! When she was finally within reach, I picked her up. She protested the return trip in the car; but after four days on the side of the road, Lucy was heading home.
I filled her food bowl, and she filled her empty belly. After eating her food, Lucy always disappeared into the hedge, but today she reacted differently. She kept perching on the storm door and peeping through the glass...almost like she was missing something. She wouldn't come in; she just stood on her back feet and looked inside. Lucy cried at my bedroom window most of Monday night. I could hardly sleep. I remembered reading an article about cat guardians that stated how cats sometimes display grief through vocalizing. She just kept meowing in the most hauntingly melancholic tone...me-OWWW. She seemed to be crying out to me, "Go find my baby Linus!"
I wasn't even sure if Linus were still alive. He had been thrown from the car on Thursday night, and I did not know if Lucy had found him. I was confident that he must be starving after five days, so I determined to look for him one last time. On Tuesday morning, I drove back to the roadside spot where I found Lucy. I called for the kitten, but I heard nothing. I decided to meow, and I heard a faint response ~ almost a whisper. I meowed a second time and listened intently for the feeble mew of the kitten. As completely feral as that kitten had been, Linus slowly crept out of the tall weeds. Something in him ~some kind of survival mechanism~ was responding! Even with all of his apprehension and wildness, Linus was making a choice between life and death!
I kept meowing until the kitten was close enough to grab. With one quick snatch, I caught the wild kitten and tossed him into my car. He went completely bezerk! Linus was pouncing all around the car interior like an enraged five-pound hornet, and we both had five miles to go! When we finally made it to the garden shed, I hurriedly jumped out of the car and opened the back door! Linus sprang from the vehicle and ran to his mother! Within seconds, both cats disappeared from sight...back into the hedge behind the shed.
Home? I'm not quite sure if Lucy and Linus understand the concept of home ~ certainly not socialization. Safety? Togetherness? A place to eat? Whatever constitutes home to these two cats, they recognize a sense of place here. Even though they are still strangers to me, they are no longer in a strange environment. Since their return, nothing has changed ~ no grateful response, no playful interaction, not even a purr.
I have learned so much about myself during this entire process...how we are sometimes flung into certain situations beyond our control, how we humans do the best we can to make things right, how even the untamed respond to survival, and how we all need guardians and companions and a familiar sense of place. I haven't seen the cats for two days now; however, their cat food mysteriously disappears on a daily basis. They may not be my "pets", and I may not be their "person"; but we definitely have a story.
Dianne ; )
Friday, August 10, 2012
Thursday, August 2, 2012
The Life of Lucy
How does a stray become a stray?
Maybe it happens just this way,
starting three months ago, around the first of May...
The first time we saw Mama Cat, she was huge! We knew she was pregnant, AND we knew she was hungry because she was eating a baby bird behind our shed on a Sunday morning. My husband scatted her away from the nest of birds learning to fly, and I drove to the local dollar store to buy the semi-feral cat some Meow Mix! Thankfully, only one bird was digested during the process. I placed a two-sided bowl on the patio and filled one side with cat food and the other side with a mixture of milk and water. She licked both sides clean, and then she ran away.
Over the next few weeks, Mama Cat came and went. Each time she returned, she would always jump on the outside ledge of our picture window ~ a signal to us that she needed sustenance. She ate her food, drank her milk, and disappeared into the bushes.
Around the first of June, she delivered her kittens...somewhere. We didn't see her for two or three days. When she finally came back to her food bowl, she was emaciated. I decided to buy some canned tuna and chicken to feed her while she nursed her kittens. She never missed another meal ~ morning, noon, and night. She also began to interact with me, almost like a pet. She let me pick her up, she sat in my lap, and she even tried to come inside on several occasions. I almost felt as if this behavior was familiar to her.
So...I cleaned out the garden shed and set up living quarters for Mama Cat. She had a permanent home, if she ever decided to bring her kittens. Mama Cat quickly accepted the invitation. She and her one baby kitten moved into their nice, dry, clean home during the week of the Fourth of July.
This past Friday night, the kids in the community were playing volleyball in our back yard when one of the girls saw Mama Cat. "Lucy!" she shouted. She ran towards the cat and grabbed her up in her arms. I was shocked. I had held Mama Cat, but I had never just embraced her without reservation. Then she went running to her mother with the cat dangling in her arms and exclaimed again, "Mom, look, it's Lucy!"
The little girl played with Lucy the rest of the evening and asked if she could visit Lucy again on Saturday. The following morning, she told us that her dad had chased Lucy away because she was pregnant. Her mother explained that they couldn't afford to keep Lucy and that she was glad Lucy had found a good home. The little girl also informed us that Lucy gave birth to four kittens; however, we had only seen one. As they were leaving, I told the little girl that she was welcomed to visit Lucy anytime.
Lucy ~ Mama Cat had a proper name, so we named her one surviving kitten Linus...which brings me to today. This morning, Lucy and Linus were playing on the carport. I opened the storm door so that Riley could go tee-tee-in-the-yard, and somehow he startled Linus. Lucy jumped on Riley with all fours! I was screaming, Riley was yelping, and Lucy was scowling! When I finally got Riley back into the house, he was covered in tiny claw marks. Plus, he was totally freaked out! After I treated Riley's wounds, I chased Lucy and Linus back to the shed.
Later this evening, I saw Lucy back on the carport ~ lying underneath my car. I was headed to a local restaurant to pick up a take-out order, so I made sure Lucy had moved before I backed out of the garage. I assumed Linus was still in the shed. I assumed wrong. I drove about five miles to the restaurant and picked up my order. About half-way home, I heard a thump. I looked in my rear view mirror to see what I had run over, and there sat Linus in the middle of the road. All of a sudden, he jumped up and ran into the tall grass on the side of the road! That little kitten had lived through the entire ordeal! I knew that Linus would never come to me if I called or even let me get close enough to catch him, so I had to go home and get Lucy. Maybe she could call to him or he could call to her, and I could somehow get them both back home to the safety of their shed.
The car ride alarmed Lucy, but we quickly made it to the spot where the kitten had been flung from the car. As soon as I parked the car on the side of the busy state highway and opened the back door, Lucy bolted out of the car and and headed for the bushes. Now, both Lucy and Linus were hiding in the thicket. I called and called, but neither cat emerged from the brush. So I got back into my car and drove home.
How would I ever be able to bring them back home? How would they survive in the wild? All I could hope is that maybe they could at least find each other during the night.
Once again, the life of Lucy had taken an unfortunate turn. How does a stray become a stray...maybe it happens just this way.
Dianne
Maybe it happens just this way,
starting three months ago, around the first of May...
The first time we saw Mama Cat, she was huge! We knew she was pregnant, AND we knew she was hungry because she was eating a baby bird behind our shed on a Sunday morning. My husband scatted her away from the nest of birds learning to fly, and I drove to the local dollar store to buy the semi-feral cat some Meow Mix! Thankfully, only one bird was digested during the process. I placed a two-sided bowl on the patio and filled one side with cat food and the other side with a mixture of milk and water. She licked both sides clean, and then she ran away.
Over the next few weeks, Mama Cat came and went. Each time she returned, she would always jump on the outside ledge of our picture window ~ a signal to us that she needed sustenance. She ate her food, drank her milk, and disappeared into the bushes.
Around the first of June, she delivered her kittens...somewhere. We didn't see her for two or three days. When she finally came back to her food bowl, she was emaciated. I decided to buy some canned tuna and chicken to feed her while she nursed her kittens. She never missed another meal ~ morning, noon, and night. She also began to interact with me, almost like a pet. She let me pick her up, she sat in my lap, and she even tried to come inside on several occasions. I almost felt as if this behavior was familiar to her.
So...I cleaned out the garden shed and set up living quarters for Mama Cat. She had a permanent home, if she ever decided to bring her kittens. Mama Cat quickly accepted the invitation. She and her one baby kitten moved into their nice, dry, clean home during the week of the Fourth of July.
This past Friday night, the kids in the community were playing volleyball in our back yard when one of the girls saw Mama Cat. "Lucy!" she shouted. She ran towards the cat and grabbed her up in her arms. I was shocked. I had held Mama Cat, but I had never just embraced her without reservation. Then she went running to her mother with the cat dangling in her arms and exclaimed again, "Mom, look, it's Lucy!"
The little girl played with Lucy the rest of the evening and asked if she could visit Lucy again on Saturday. The following morning, she told us that her dad had chased Lucy away because she was pregnant. Her mother explained that they couldn't afford to keep Lucy and that she was glad Lucy had found a good home. The little girl also informed us that Lucy gave birth to four kittens; however, we had only seen one. As they were leaving, I told the little girl that she was welcomed to visit Lucy anytime.
Lucy ~ Mama Cat had a proper name, so we named her one surviving kitten Linus...which brings me to today. This morning, Lucy and Linus were playing on the carport. I opened the storm door so that Riley could go tee-tee-in-the-yard, and somehow he startled Linus. Lucy jumped on Riley with all fours! I was screaming, Riley was yelping, and Lucy was scowling! When I finally got Riley back into the house, he was covered in tiny claw marks. Plus, he was totally freaked out! After I treated Riley's wounds, I chased Lucy and Linus back to the shed.
Later this evening, I saw Lucy back on the carport ~ lying underneath my car. I was headed to a local restaurant to pick up a take-out order, so I made sure Lucy had moved before I backed out of the garage. I assumed Linus was still in the shed. I assumed wrong. I drove about five miles to the restaurant and picked up my order. About half-way home, I heard a thump. I looked in my rear view mirror to see what I had run over, and there sat Linus in the middle of the road. All of a sudden, he jumped up and ran into the tall grass on the side of the road! That little kitten had lived through the entire ordeal! I knew that Linus would never come to me if I called or even let me get close enough to catch him, so I had to go home and get Lucy. Maybe she could call to him or he could call to her, and I could somehow get them both back home to the safety of their shed.
The car ride alarmed Lucy, but we quickly made it to the spot where the kitten had been flung from the car. As soon as I parked the car on the side of the busy state highway and opened the back door, Lucy bolted out of the car and and headed for the bushes. Now, both Lucy and Linus were hiding in the thicket. I called and called, but neither cat emerged from the brush. So I got back into my car and drove home.
How would I ever be able to bring them back home? How would they survive in the wild? All I could hope is that maybe they could at least find each other during the night.
Once again, the life of Lucy had taken an unfortunate turn. How does a stray become a stray...maybe it happens just this way.
Dianne
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