The Vagabond Cat That Came to Stay

[elleng]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/weekinreview/25burns.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=homepage&src=me

Deserves general distribution, imo.

[nykym]

1. We have two

cats that adopted us! they are quite amazing.

[mike_c]

2. holy shit....

:cry:

[Motown_Johnny]

3. "as we lifted him from the polished flagstones"

clearly the kitten was taken in


Hey, I take in strays too but I don't try to pass it off as the animal making the decision.

[mike_c]

4. in that case, try taking in a cat that doesn't want you to....

With cats, it's always a two way accommodation, or it's short lived and usually bloody.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

9. Sorry, but they always ultimately make the decision.

I have taken in strays for many, many years. Most stayed while others preferred to move on. I gave each and every one of them food, shelter, treats, love, and as many rubs as I could give them -- every reason on the planet for them to stay with me -- and yet some chose not to.

[XOKCowboy]

5. Great story. Thanks...We had a momma cat once....

who had the same spirit as Scuzzi. She was a vagabond, a lover and a fighter. She was a ranch cat that used up all of her 9 lives with style. She was a skilled hunter and fighter (and had the nicked up ears to prove it) yet she loved people. Sometimes she'd leave and be gone for weeks and come home either pregnant or tore up or both. Thanks to her skills and her spirit she lived over 10 years which is about twice the normal lifespan of a ranch cat.

Then one day she left on another journey and never came back. After about a month we began to realize she might never come back but it was OK. She'd lived all her life outside. Her range was about a 10 square mile area of ranch land full of adventure. She might even have gone away to die. In any case she died doing what she loved best. I'm also sure that whatever killed her got some scars in the process.

Thanks for the link. I enjoyed it.

[sinkingfeeling]

6. I have already taken in 3 stray/feral cats and a 4th. showed up last week. The first one

was so starved, he was eating Styrofoam meat trays from the trash. That was back in 2005 and I named him Dubya because he would run from everybody(look at his namesake!). Then in 2008, a lanky black kitten showed up and in 2009 a beautiful, white long hair. Dubs accepted Andy as a friend, and now after a year, Mellow is part of the group too. They all still run when a strange person comes to the door, but not as far as they used to.


P.S. Forgot to add that all the boys have been neutered and receive vaccinations.

[malaise]

7. Lovely story

It's the end that always gets me with stray cats.

[SheilaT]

8. About four years ago now

a starving, flea-infested cat showed up in our front yard in the middle of a week of 100 plus degree weather (this was in Kansas in July). She apparently had decided that we were her last hope at survival, and simply stayed. After about two days, hoping she'd move on, we couldn't just watch her die, so started giving her food and water. And then I took her to our vet, got her vaccinations, flea medication, and then took her inside. When she realized we had two other cats, she was rather miffed, but eventually they all adjusted.

At first, because she was so skinny, we thought she was relatively young, but as time went on it became more and more clear that she was an older cat, probably older than either of the other two we had, so she was at least fifteen. We have no idea how she wound up on her own, or how long she'd been on the street, and every day we were glad she'd found us.

I brought her and the other two cats with me when I relocated to Santa Fe two years ago. She died suddenly about a year ago, and I still miss her. Oh, and we named her Gracie.