A stray cat was hanging around my house. I tried to catch her in a Hav-a-Hart , but she was too smart and I caught an opossum instead! I named her Spooky, as she got spooked whenever I went near her.
She kept having litters of kittens at least once a year. With every litter I would try to gather the kittens to find homes, but they would disappear before I could catch them. I did manage to catch one while trying to get the mother. I kept him , and he adjusted to indoor life very nicely.
One year later, I was awakened by a terrible growl/screeching coming from the back yard. I followed the sound to the upside down canoe, and found the back half of my neighbor's Jack Russell Terrier sticking out of the canoe.
I called the dog by name, and he backed out of the canoe with a tiny grey meowing kitten in his mouth. I yelled for him to "drop the kitten", which surprisingly, he did.
I quickly and carefully grabbed the kitten and immediately put it on my shoulder, as the dog was jumping and barking trying to get at the kitten. I brought the kitten in the house and to the cat carrier. Checked on it a few minutes later, tried to make itself bigger by standing in corner on back legs and hissing.
My husband came home and put his hand in carrier, kitten climbed on his hand right away. So tiny didn't even fill his hand. We rushed him to vet and were told he was about 2-3 weeks old, had a displaced /broken hip.
We were given three options. 1) Take x-ray. The cost was more than we had, plus at that time it wasn't even our pet. 2) Put him down. Again, cost was more than we had. 3) Take him home, keep him quiet and comfortable, but don't expect him to make it through the night.
We put him in a dog crate and kept a close eye on him. The next morning, he was still alive and meowing. When we wanted to hold him, we put him on our shoulder where he seemed to feel safe. The other cat took a liking to him and stayed with him when out of crate.
We decided to keep him and named him Lucky Chance, We call him Chance.
Fast forward 11 years. The only indication of Chance's trauma is a non-working tail, it just hangs down. He is always chasing that tail and going in circles. He has turned out to be my husband's cat and follows him everywhere. We now call him Puppy, I swear that cat thinks he is a puppy.
CONWAY, NH
