How did this happen, you ask? Well...you see..it goes like this..
I answer calls two days a week for a local animal rescue. The majority of the calls are people that have found a stray cat(s) or need to surrender their cat. It breaks my heart. Some people are rude, they say, 'um, you can't take the cat? '
‘We can’t’
'Well, now what am I supposed to do? '
I feel like saying, ‘um, be a responsible pet owner and figure out how to make it work.’ But alas, I just try to point them other directions, praying for the poor kitty in the situation.
Well, last week I rec'd a call from an elderly woman who was very choked up during the message. She explained she had to rehome her declawed, fixed, chipped cat b/c her granddaughter is highly allergic. She started to cry at the end of the call and hung up. She called back a few mins later, leaving another mesg, apologizing for cutting off before leaving her phone #, she started to cry again, letting me know she was so sorry for hanging up, she just hated the thought of putting her cat to sleep.
I was choked up after listening to her 2 mesgs. I told the girls about it that evening and they both thought it was sad too. They said, 'why don't we bring her home,' I said, 'oh Daddy would be mad...'
So Dennis got home from work and I said, 'listen to these 2 messages.' He said, 'oh, that's so sad.' Then I said, 'uh - you have to call her and tell her we can't bring the cat into the program b/c we are full.' He said, 'what, why? '
I said, 'I can't do it, I'll start crying.'
Bry leans forward and says, 'Daddy, why don't we bring her to live with us?' He said, 'we don't need another cat, you don't change the litter,' to which Cai chimed in, 'no - I do - every week. And we scoop in btwn.'
I had to bite my lip to keep from smiling. I said, 'look, it's fine, but I can't call her and tell her, will you please?' He just gave me an annoyed look and said, 'just tell her we will keep it and if her granddaughter moves out or whatever, she can have her back.'
WOW - that's a really good idea! HA! When I called her, she started crying, which made me choke up again.
It was funny b/c my friend had said to me a few days before, 'how many cats do you have?' I said, '3', she said, 'damn, I have more than you (she just got her 4th), I may be a hoarder.' (Fantastic, people judge the # of pets they have on how many I have. I may have set a precedence over the years of fostering).
I laughed at her and said 'probably!!' Annnndddd then 4 days later I have a 4th cat. Dammit. Karma. I shouldn’t have laughed at her.
When I told her about Molly, she said, 'yes! That means I’m not a hoarder….'
I said..'or it means we both are! Hahaha!'
The day I picked up Molly, the lady was teary eyed and continually thanked me. She was a small lady, probably in her late 70’s or early 80’s. She was very sweet and gave me two big hugs, telling me she was so appreciative of this. I smiled, all the while thinking of how big of an idiot I am. Ugh..4 cats. I asked her as we were loading Molly into the crate, had she been around kids, dogs, other cats? No, no & no.
Awesome – sounds like we are the perfect family for her. Various children in & out of our house, a dog & 3 other cats. She’s going to be very pleased when we get her home.
She didn’t make a peep while we drove home. She did a lot of hissing and growling at Blitz and the other cats once we got home and brought her out of her crate – but she’s slowly adjusting. She likes to sleep with Cadence at night, she isn’t a fan of Bryleigh (maybe she senses Bry is a dog-whisperer!) and she still hates Blitz.
 |
| She sees Blitz in the kitchen - she's not amused |
