I already had 6 cats, so when I saw a posting on NextDoor of a "beautiful, long-hair cat" who had a pretty tragic abandonment story, with the notation on the post, "does anybody have room in their home or heart for this cat?" I thought to myself, "What a beautiful cat. But I'm full up." So I replied that I had room in my heart, but not my home. Then came the posting that if nobody could adopt this precious fur-baby, it would be taken to a shelter. This was in May (kitten season), and I know an adult cat has very little chance of surviving or being adopted from a shelter at that time of year. So I bit the bullet and replied that I would adopt it. Then the lady who found the cat told me the whole story. She was driving past an empty corner in her housing development and saw what looked like a nice duffel bag sitting by the side of the road. She stopped to check it out. It turned out to be an airline-approved, soft-sided cat carrier with this poor cat sealed up inside - in May, when temps are in the 80-degree-plus range - a bag of stuff next to the carrier, and no note or indication whatsoever that there was a live animal inside. Once she realized there was a cat in there, she checked out the bag of stuff next to the carrier. There was a 3/4 full bag of prescription urinary tract cat food, four brand new scratching pads, and 7 or 8 cat toys. Lord only knows how many days the poor thing was sitting by the side of the road, in a black carrier, with no food, water or litter tray. She took the cat to the county shelter to check for a chip, but there wasn't one. They told her it was an unspayed female. She brought me the cat the next evening, along with all the stuff that had been left with it. Since I had 6 other cats, I didn't want to allow them all to interact until I'd taken the new cat to my vet to be checked for diseases. That night, I put the new cat in my bathroom (I live in a trailer, so we're talking SMALL bathroom) and slept on the floor with "her" because she'd already been abandoned once, and I didn't want her to be psychologically traumatized even more. During the night, every time I turned my face to her, she'd respond by "kissing" my face, so I named her Kissie. The next day, she got a clean bill of health from the vet, but she was so dehydrated, they couldn't draw enough blood to test her general health. They also asked me, "How did the shelter know it's a female? They didn't shave her." I'd wondered the same thing. The shelter told the lady who found her that if they did anything other than a cursory examination, she would be legally obligated for one year as the "owner" of the animal. Anyway, I'd noticed Kissie's beautiful, long fur was quite matted. She did NOT like being combed or brushed, clawing and nipping when I tried, so after a couple of weeks I took her back to the vet for sedation and shaving. I asked them, "While you're there, can you shave the pertinent parts and find out for sure if it's a male or female?" Later that day, they called to give me the blood test results, saying, "He has nothing abnormal on the blood test." I said, "HE?" They said, "Yes!" So my Kissie had a sex-change overnight. Since the blood tests were fine, I decided that everybody was going to change from the dry food they were currently being fed to urinary tract food, since Kissie had been given a prescription for that, so he must have had some kind of testing to determine that. My vet also told me he was neutered and had recently had his teeth professionally cleaned. They estimated he was about 7 or 8 years old. Adding it all up - the several hundred dollars the carrier would have cost, the prescription Royal Canin urinary tract food, the professional teeth cleaning (also several hundred dollars), the neutering - my only conclusion was that SOMEBODY had really loved this cat. The lady who found him guessed that his previous owner had died, and the family didn't know what to do with him so they just LEFT HIM BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD. He has some personality issues - he claws and bites when I do anything he doesn't like - but that's how God made him, and I love him that way. I just have to pay close attention to his body language. He is a supreme cuddler, putting both his arms around my neck every time we cuddle, which is pretty much any time I hold still long enough for him to climb on. I thank the Lord every day for allowing this wonderful, beautiful, loving soul to come into my life, and I think all the time what a horrible waste of this incredible amount of love, had my Kissie been sent to the shelter.
Ms. Fred BoucherBRIGHTON, CO
