I was dumped in a mini-mall parking lot right off a busy road in October. I was already grown up, but I was pretty small and not used to fending for myself, and was was having a hard time catching enough food to eat. I started asking shop owners for help by staring in their windows. Probably due to my previous experiences (I had already had at least two litters of kittens before I was dumped), I didn't trust people much and nobody could pet me, but if they left the shop doors open and put some food down I would come inside to chow down.
The weather was getting colder and wetter and the building owners did not want a "stray cat" in the parking lot or "bothering customers", so a really nice lady who was feeding me and calling me Gloria (she said because I Will Survive) asked someone to help get me to a shelter. They tricked me into a trap (!) and let me move into a safer-feeling carrier, and then a different nice lady drove me to the local shelter. I was very scared and didn't know where I was or what was going on. When the shelter person looked into my carrier, I hid in the back crouched down with big eyes, and they said I was feral and I couldn't be in the shelter! What?! They told that poor lady (who was just helping by driving me there) to put me back where the shop owners trapped me! I wanted to cry, "No! I was cold and scared and hungry out there, and all those cars were big and loud and scary!" I would die out there!
The lady put me back in her car and took me back to the lady who helped trap me. When she heard what the shelter person said, she ranted a little and said a few bad words, but then I heard her say no way was I going back to that parking lot, and I got to go home with her! She talked to me in a soft voice and blinked at me a lot, and told me I could come stay at her house for a while until she figured out a safe place for me to be. She had six cats living in her house already(!) who were all very curious about me, and I was a little nervous but none of them hissed or growled at me in my carrier, so I wasn't too scared. There was also a big goofy looking dog who was curious, but I swatted his nose and hissed dramatically at him a few times and he left me alone after that!
Trapper lady (I'll call her "Mom" for convenience's sake) set up a really big metal crate in the living room of her little house. She gave me a blanket to keep warm, a carrier to hide in, a cushion on top of the carrier to relax on, a big cardboard thing attached to the crate for me to scratch into pieces (so fun!), a litter box to do my business, a water dish, and even a cool catnip-filled banana that smelled SO GOOD I couldn't stop chewing on it until I ripped it open and got catnip everywhere (YEAH!!). She covered my whole new home with a big blanket until I felt calmer, then each day lifted the sides of the blanket a little more until I was comfortable coming out of the carrier with my crate uncovered.
Mom shortened my name and started calling me "Glow" (I like it!). She talked to me, read to me, sang to me, let me watch TV with her, dangled things into my crate for me to chase and grab, and gave me really tasty food and yummy treats that I swatted out of her hands because I didn't want to get too close to her (sorry for making you bleed, Mom). After a while, she even took my carrier out and gave me a big squishy soft bed to lie in instead - so much more comfortable! The other cats came around to touch noses and say hi, and sometimes Mom would have toys for them to play with right outside the crate while she played string-games with me, and we sort of played together!
I really really really didn't trust people, and I wouldn't let Mom's hands come anywhere near me for a long time. I remembered some human being very mean to me when I was younger, and then people in the parking lot sometimes chased me or threw things at me, and I had forgotten that people touching me could feel good! Mom started touching my head with a little puffball on a long stick, and I realized that felt WONDERFUL!! So relaxing! I would close my eyes and pretend I didn't notice that she switched out the puffball for her own hand rubbing my head. I started to spend most of my time in my bed really close to the front of the crate, hoping Mom would sit next to me for a while and rub my head.
Getting me to trust again took a long time, and Mom said she didn't want me to have to go through it all again with some new person, so she said I could join her family! Since I didn't act so scared anymore, and had gotten a lot healthier and plumper and furrier (who knew I was a long-haired cat?!) , Mom said after I saw the vet I could come out and run around with all six of my new housemates! That whole "seeing the vet" thing was NO FUN and she had to put something in my food that made me sleepy so I didn't popcorn all over the examination room and the doctor could look at me and poke me with things and even take some of my blood out of me (!). But once it was over and we got back to Mom's house, she put the carrier into my crate, opened it, and then left the crate door wide open!
I stayed near my crate the first few days, and my housemate cats only got to visit with me a couple at a time. After I got a little braver, Mom let me go back into all the cats' favorite room - "Mom's Bedroom", which is full of cat trees, and cat caves, and cat beds of all kinds. AND there is a special door in this room that goes OUTSIDE to the coolest thing ever called a CATIO! I found out I could go outside and bask in the sun and eat grass and climb ramps and watch birds and catch bugs, all being totally safe from dogs and people and cars and eagles and anything else that might want to eat me! It has become my favorite place to hang out!
I am so glad Mom didn't listen to that shelter person when they said to put me back out in that scary cold parking lot! Now I live in a warm house with cat friends and I get two meals a day and Mom gives me treats and plays with me. I still make her start petting me with the puffball, but then I let her change to her hand sometimes. Maybe someday I'll climb up on the bed and sit in her lap like some of my friends do, or even let her pick me up! Or, maybe not. But Mom says it's my choice, and I love her for that!
Signed, Glow
SOUTH COLBY, WA
