CATegorical HISStrionics

People of questionable moral fiber, intelligence quotient, and shoe size like to dump unwanted animals on the road where I reside. One and a half to two months ago, a petite, black, starving kitty showed up at Chateau Pearson. It was literally days from death and I took pity on it, fed, watered, and dewormed it. Discouraged the Big, Yellow Stupid from chasing it up trees, and put a flea collar on it.

A few weeks later, Dumped Kitteh #2 showed up. Skinny, ragged, tabby-with-white markings, it was quite desperate to be loved. I showed it the same courtesies Kitteh #1 had received minus the collar--which had led to Black Kitteh digging a hole in its own neck.

All the while, I was scheming. I don't have a vehicle during the week and I vehemently cannot afford to vet a bunch of dumped cats, but also don't want exponentially multiplying kittens on my hands. There's a service around here that will spay/neuter and vaccinate feral cats for free. They just require that the cats be trapped in live traps and brought to a meeting point at 6:30 a.m. on a certain day. So, I borrowed two traps from a neighbor and arranged to borrow a car from another neighbor.

Yesterday, my older boys had a day off of school due to road flooding in the area--another story entirely--and they were helping me ready the live traps when suddenly Abe exclaims, "There are TWO gray kitties!" Protracted swearing ensued... A third cat, very similar to the tabby had indeed just emerged from the drainage pipe...

So, we trapped Black and New Gray, and lured Original Gray into a cat carrier procured for the purpose before I found out about the trap requirement. I was worried they wouldn't take the one that wasn't in a trap because they'd been adamant about that point in the emails I'd traded with them. I quickly begged a third trap from the previous neighbor, but it was half the size of the other two traps. There was NO stuffing any of these kitties into it, though I ended up letting Black lose in the attempt. In the shuffle trying to retrap kitties, the two Grays ended up in traps and I stuffed Black into the cat crate.

Finally, at 6:00 a.m., after hastily procuring the borrowed car before Dear Husband left for work, and waking a bunch of Cranky Boys up forty-five minutes too early (their choice--I offered to let them meet the bus on their own at the normal hour), boys, cats, and I set off in our borrowed car, fingers crossed that they'll take the crated critter.

We got to the cat bus meeting place on time. They were super reluctant to take the cat in the crate because of the strays in traps rule. So I show them Black, who had ultimately ended up in the crate. The volunteer tells me, "Oh! Look, its ear has been 'tipped.' That means it has already been caught, treated, and released!" Fortunate me and Black. I'd go so far as to say God works in mysterious ways!

So, off the two tabbies go for treatment. Home go Black and smallest child and I. Black arrives home covered in pee and looking at me with much judgment in its eyes. I told it, "Cat, I went above and beyond the call of duty to keep you from being coyote bait or getting cowboy euthanized. I officially name you Ingrate."

To make a long story longer, I now have a ginger cat named Hiss, a black cat named Ingrate, two gray cats yet to be officially christened, and a profound sense of gratitude for UCAN charity vet services. And a profound desire to stuff the Anonymous Cat Dumper(s) into live traps to see if their attitudes can be fixed by a little of their own medicine.