Found felines friended by compassionate caregivers
Today I have a cat “tail” to share with you.
Well, seven of them. Actually, eight of them.
It began a few weeks ago when my boyfriend found an adorable kitten in the parking lot at his work. And then its mama showed up — two cats. As did all five of its siblings — seven cats. (We’ll cat-ch up on the eighth one a bit later.)
As he already has a cat — another rescue from the parking lot at his work — and her name is Millie Nelson, we went with a country music theme in assigning temporary names to the others:
MaeLynn Jennings, the super chill, friendly, lovey mama cat with beautiful markings.
Tabby Wynette, a playful lighter gray tabby and the most outgoing of the bunch.
Reba CatEntire, another adorable darker gray tabby.
Catsy Cline, a cuddly black kitten, overcoming shyness.
Elvis Pawsley, a stunning charcoal gray kitten — quiet and mysterious, with a rock ’n’ roll edge.
Dolly Purrton, a curious, sweet black kitten.
And, sigh, Meowmi Judd, another curious, sweet black kitten. Probably too curious and/or sweet.
Except for MaeLynn, we couldn’t be sure of anyone’s gender. It’s likely that Catsy Cline was really a Tim McPaw. It’s very possible Tabby Wynette was really a Tabby Keith instead.
Not wanting to disrupt MaeLynn’s feline family while she was nursing and risk her moving them away, he cared for them in the parking lot, fixing a covered habitat for them, complete with box housing, blankets and a litter box. He made twice daily trips to feed them for weeks, on weekends too. But despite efforts to protect them, one of the kitties — Meowmi Judd — disappeared, never to be seen again. Talk about “Cry Myself to Sleep.”
With Meowmi missing, the kittens fully weaned and the air cooler, we knew it was time to get them inside. So we crated them all up and brought them into my home office. Not that it was that easy. We had a fourhour Saturday night standoff with scared, stubborn Elvis Pawsley. Talk about “Suspicious Minds.”
Knowing my own cats, Kate and Pippa, wouldn’t be thrilled to share their space with six squatters, I pleaded with animal rescue organizations — all of which were full — and posted to social media platforms from Facebook to Nextdoor. I also did a lot of praying, not to mention scooping and Febreezing.
The first day, we adopted out three (!) kittens — Dolly, Reba and Elvis went to kind people in a lovely home that has tall trees growing inside of it. This Elvis would actually have his own Jungle Room too!
The next day, lively Tabby would find a fun home with three cute little kids. The day after that, Catsy went to a trusty, tenderhearted neighbor. We worried we might have a harder time finding a home for MaeLynn Jennings, but a “Good Hearted Woman,” as the original Waylon Jennings might say, surfaced the same day Catsy left.
Six cats. Four homes. Four days. God faithfully connected us with His finest people and so swiftly! Wait, Swift! Tail-er Swift! That would have been another good name!
Our rescue situation was far less dramatic than another that went viral the same week.
Oregon resident Chuck Hawley posted on Facebook a picture of his smiling face with a precious kitten — one that looked a lot like our Tabby Wynette — perched on his shoulder and this caption:
So I’m driving down the road this morning and the cars in front of me are driving over a black thing in the road. It’s going between their tires so I’m guessing it’s a box. It’s a kitten just sitting upright shaking like a leaf. And (someone) had spread glue on its paws and stuck it to the road. I thought maybe it walked through glue somewhere but after looking at it, that was totally spread into her paws. She was wet and freezing and literally glued to the road. And NO ONE STOPPED. … I slammed on my brakes and stopped all the traffic and put my hazards on and got out and (peeled) her off the road. People were honking ….really??? It’s a kitten glued to the road!!
So after a Goo Gone bath and some food and cream we have a new kitten. Luckiest kitten in the world!
Indeed. Sticky the Kitty, as the cat is now known, has a loving family of people and pups to snuggle with, and has a Sticky the Kitty Facebook page with 31,000 followers. As of press time, Chuck’s post about Sticky, whom they’ve since learned is deaf and a boy, had been shared hundreds of thousands of times. Chuck said it made him feel “humbled and amazed.”
OK while I have this forum at the moment I’d like to first thank everyone again on behalf of my family and myself. … I truly feel like I didn’t do anything but do what we are supposed to do. And that’s what I want to keep saying as long as anyone is listening. We just HAVE to get back to this being a normal thing that we do for each other. I don’t know where we got off track but we have to get back to watching out for each other. I’m so happy this has touched so many people and hopefully woken some people up to the fact that life can be real hard. Just getting through the day sometimes can be tough. If we all just try just a little bit harder to be just a little bit cooler to each other, I can’t imagine the world won’t be a much better place.
Indeed. Together we can really help each other through life’s Sticky situations.