It was a hot July in Houston, Texas, in 2004. I had just come out of a Burger King and was walking to my car when I heard the faint cry of a tiny kitten. I told my wife that there was a kitten somewhere in the parking lot, and we needed to find it. We split up and searched until I finally found it on a very thin patch of grass at the edge of the parking lot. She was so tiny, and couldn't have been more than a few weeks old. I picked her up and gave her a quick scan and found no wounds or even any dirt. There was no way that kitten could have gotten to this location on her own, as the restaurant was surrounded on 3 sides by busy streets and the other side had a huge parking lot. Clearly, someone had driven up to the parking lot and tossed her out, hoping that someone else would find her. I am so glad that I did. I got in my car and set the tiny kitten in my lap and started driving home, which was only a few miles away. She immediately started climbing up my shirt to be as close to me as she could, so grateful to have been rescued from the terrifying experience she had just endured. I don't understand people who would toss out a precious living creature just because they don't want to care for it or find it a good home.
Fast forward 14 and one-half years: Hermione is a healthy, dainty, loving cat who stays close to me when I am at home, which is most of the time now that I am retired. She earned the title of Princess one day as she walked through the kitchen and inadvertently stepped on a single drop of water that someone had spilled on the kitchen floor. I happened to be standing there and saw her lift up the offended front paw and look all around her as if to say, "Somebody help me, I got my paw wet!" And she has been Princess Hermione since then. We love her very much (and spoil her rotten), as is the same with our other eight indoor cats. They all have a story of their own, as I absolutely love cats and cannot bear to see one tossed out and abandoned by some cruel human. We have also trapped many feral cats in our yard, taken them to the vet to be spayed/neutered and given a rabies shot. They were then returned to the neighborhood. This has helped to decrease the number of homeless kittens that are born every year, but it still happens. I wish people would get their pets "fixed" so that fewer homeless cats and dogs would live terrified out in a cruel world, unloved and uncared-for.
HOUSTON, TX
