My Rescues
Below are my cats. Each is a rescue, a member of my family and each has a story. Over the years they have come in to my life and some have already left.
CHELSEA
Chelsea is my newest rescue. She has only been with us for two months as of March 21st. We had just lost our little Grey on January 5th. I really did not know how we were going to survive losing him because he really was sick. His story is below. I was talking with a close friend when I looked outside of my window and saw this little kitty running toward the front of our house. My friend told me to go feed her, so I put food out and waited to see if it disappeared. It did. The only way I could see if she was eating it was to go out on my front porch. She would see me and run. This went on for a week and I noticed another black cat running her off. It was getting very cold outside so I raised may garage door a little so she could come inside if she wanted. I put some things up to block out the cold and left an opening. Then on January 23, I went in the garage and leaned down to look outside and she was eating. The black cat came and she ran inside of the garage. I left and went to the front door and when I went outside the black cat ran off. She then went outside to eat. I was glad she was eating but sad I had not gotten her.
I went about my day and around 3:00 I opened my garage door and there she sat on the step looking up at me and crying with her quiet meow. She ws darling! I went inside and got her some food and took it to her. She let me pet her. It took a few minutes to get her in the carrier but I did and took her in to the patio room where little Grey spent the better part of his last few months. To my surprise she went immediately to my taboret and got up on the shelf where he laid when I painted. She was just like him. It was truly amazing.
Within a week she was in the house with the other kitties and is so spoiled right now. I am convinced that Little Grey sent her to us. I know it. I was painting Little Grey's painting when we lost him and he did get to see his eyes. When Chelsea came inside I painted my tulips with her lying in the bed I made for her inside of the easel. And when I finished that one I did her painting. She is truly beautiful and a tiny little thing, only 8 pounds.
LITTLE RICKY
I think someone put Little Ricky out in the neighborhood. One day I heard some cats crying loudly and went to look and there were several very mean stray cats surrounding him. He was so little. I ran down to my front yard and picked him up and carried him to our patio. I really did not know what I was going to do. When I went in to my kitchen and looked outside he was sitting on the window looking in. OK that was it. I went out to get him. I brought him in and put him in a carrier. When I went to bed I put the carrier on the bed so the other cats would not get to him. I tried to find him a home but it only took a few days for me to figure out he was my kitty. I named him "Lucy" I thought surely someone had not thrown out a boy kitty., BUT when I took him to the vet, I was told "this isn't Lucy, this is Ricky". This is how he got his name. He was the youngest for quite some time until Little Grey came inside. And his name should be Dennis The Menace.
CARRIE
Carrie is my mailbox kitty. One day I was taking something to my mailbox. When I got there I heard a very loud cry. I really thought it was a baby. I looked down and there was this tiny kitten. I picked her up and carried her in to the house. She is the only one that came in my front door. BUT when I brought her inside I heard a bunch of loud hisses and the other ones were not having any of it. SO I took her back down to the mailbox. But the more I thought about that little one the worse I felt so I went back down and there she was, still crying. I brought her inside and told the rest of them to get used to it. She was part of the family. She had to have all but two of her teeth removed. She is a torte. Anyone who has a torte knows her personality.
CASIE
My Casie boy. He is one of my bottle fed kitties. I fed a momma feral kitty for years outside. (I did finally trap her and get her fixed. She was too wild to tame. She had many kittens I found homes for before I did get her spayed). We had a wood pile out in the back yard where we piled limbs off of trees that had fallen. I used to walk my dog, Corrie, around our yard. One morning we were walking and I saw her sitting right next to the wood pile. She usually ran from me. This time she did not. I walked up and looked down and saw newborn kittens. I counted one, two, three, four, and five. I saw shocked. Over the next few days I tried to make sure they were protected from the weather and took something up for them to lie on. But one morning when I went up one was missing. I went back down to the house and watched and sure enough she was moving them. I watched as one by one she took them away. She moved them to the neighbor's house. This neighbor did not have anything to do with us. I barely knew them. But one morning I was outside working and I saw their boy with a cat carrier in his hands going to the vehicle. I yelled "Do you have some kittens"? My yard is quite large. I had to raise my voice for him to hear me. The next thing I knew there was a deputy in my driveway with a disturbance complaint. To make a long story short, the kittens were soon in my patio room. They were taking them to the pound where they would have been killed. I had to bottle feed them. I found all of them homes but I had to keep Casie and Kalie, his sister.
Casie is afraid of his own shadow. When he was a kitten Toby would attack him and I went to his rescue. To this day, he cannot defend himself. He sleeps right next to my head every night. He loves and begs for coconut dairy free yogurt with blueberry preserves every morning. That is my breakfast.
KALIE
Kalie is my little princess. She, like her brother, was born in my back yard and I saved her from being taken to the shelter where she would have been killed. She is a loving kitty, loves going out on the patio where there is no danger of her getting out as we have it fenced in. She has permanent eye liner around her eyes. She will get in the smallest boxes and lay there for hours. She used to take care of Little Grey. He loved her. She has arthritis now and we are treating her for that. When you come in my house you will see steps in places she likes to go but has a hard time getting there. But you do not cross her. She can protect herself.
TOBY
Toby is my loner. She used to sleep right next to me until Casie took over her spot. She used to go after him when he was a kitten. She never goes around the rest of the kitties. She is content to sit on her couch waiting for Daddy to come home so he can sit next to her. She crawls under the sofa cover and lies there all day. And she will tell you when her water fountain needs cleaning by siting next to it until you clean it. She is Scottie's sister. We lost two of our cats years ago that are not on this page, nine days apart, Ribbon and Tiffy, from kidney failure. I did not think we would ever get any more cats., We are at our vet's one day getting food for our dog, Corrie, who is gone now and there she and Scottie were as kittens in a cage. I got Scottie out and put him on my husband's shoulder and it was love at first touch. I turned around and told him we could not leave here there so we took them both home. We lost Scottie May 19, 2018. She really does just love staying by herself.
LITTLE GREY
I just lost little Grey January 5, 2019.
On April 13th, 2013 Little Grey came crawling to my back door very ill. I had fed and cared for him as a feral for more than three years. That was the first time I touched him. He was very sick. We took him to the Vet the next morning and he was checked for everything. They found nothing other than worms. He was so small they did not think to check for diabetes. So they did and found he was diabetic. I have no idea how he survived outside. I brought him in and put up a screen door between our kitchen and the rest of the house to let him used to the other kitties. He would not eat his food for insulin so I learned how to feed him and he let me. He was so gentle to have been feral. Soon I was letting him in the house and putting him in the bathroom at night. Then one night I could not find him and he was behind the couch as if to say "I don't have to go in there tonight. I am OK". And he did fine. After we lost Baby he became my little painting buddy. He also slept right next to me at night. He was not a very big kitty, around 9 - 10 pounds.
Over the six years I had him inside we were close, very close. On June 12, 2018 we lost or beagle mix rescue, Shiloh, to a sudden discovery of lung cancer. It took me a year to get her away from bad owners who tied her to a tree. I only had her a year and a half. Within one week of her not being able to walk, we found a mass. It was lung cancer and there was nothing they could do. I had to say goodbye. She and Little Grey were very close. During the day they would lie on one of her several beds together. Little Grey began to act sad or so I thought. I just thought he missed Shiloh. I finally took him to our Vet and we discovered he was in renal failure. When I fed him outside I would always say "Little Grey I will never hurt you". I kept my promise. Whateever he needed he got. We did fluids, medicine and even a raw diet especially for kidney failure. It was tough treating his diabetes with renal failure and we had a lot of good days mixed with some really bad days. BUT I was there for him 24/7 for six months. Christmas came and we did our usual photos where I held all of them.
I had a really big story written about his last month and I removed it. I could not write the rest. After six months of treating his renal failure and then anemia we found out that he had cancer. I had to say goodbye on January 5, 2019. It was one of the worst days of my life. If it had not been for Little Chelsea showing up I really do not know how I and my husband would have recovered. The pain is terrible when you lose and fur baby angel. They all take our Hearts with them, leaving their foot prints behind.
SCOTTIE
I lost Scottie May 19, 2018.
Scottie was Toby's sister. We were at our Vets getting food for our dog, Corrie, when I looked over and saw them in a cage. We had lost two babies nine months before that and I thought we would never have another cat. I went to the cage, picked him up and put him on my husband's shoulder. It was love a first touch. They were the only two cats we had at the time and Scottie quickly assumed the role of alfa kitty. Each time we saved a new kitty he let them know who was boss. He did not like loud noises. He was a handsome boy.
We were eating dinner on June 12, 2018 and I heard him scream. I got up and found him dragging his back legs down the hallway. It was raining hard outside so I got him in my arms and held him on the 45 minute drive to ER. He had thrown a blood clot. He was screaming in pain. They took him back and told us there was nothing we could do. As we waited to say good ye I held him in a big blue blanket they bought him to me with and sang "Hush little baby". He died in my arms. I really had not had time to grieve his loss because so soon after we lost him Little Grey got sick. Scottie showed that night like he did every day. He did things his way.
BABY
I used to paint outside on my patio when I painted watercolor. It was great lighting. In April of 2010 I kept seeing this kitty in my back yard. Each day I would talk to him and each day he got closer. One day he came down right next to me and I leaned over to pet him. He swatted my hand. I said "OK in your own time". One week later I was holding him in may arms. That is how he got the name "Baby". I do remember seeing a kitten walking up the neighbor's driveway a few years before that. I assumed they threw him away and he came to me. I took him to the Vet. And of course we had to do the dreaded feline leukemia test. I was devastated when it came back positive. But I was already in love. I brought him inside of our patio room which at the time we were not heating or cooling unless I was painting. I put heavy blankets so he would be warm. I think that lasted a few days and I turned on the heat.
Baby soon became my painting buddy. He was always there with me. He was may shadow. We took walks in my yard. I have a very large fenced in yard. And he never wondered away. He would pose for photos. I have thousands of photos of him. We were close, very close. When I was in my tragic accident that took the brush right out of my hand it was Baby who was my comforter. The easel stood still all alone without me there. I was recovering the best that I could. But one day he did something strange. He went to lie under the easel. And he kept doing that for several days. I picked up my brush and started to paint again. Funny how they tell you it is time to start over.
Then in the Spring of 2013 he started to crawl in a cabinet I had. He didn't look well at all. I took him to the Vet. He was full blown anemic. His red cell count was very low. Over the next five months he got five blood transfusions, once a month and he still kept trying to do things with me. I even gave up my annual beach trip to stay home with him. But at the end of August he really was bad. We were waiting for his blood to arrive from California. He could not hold on. I spoke to my Vet on Saturday and I made my decision. On Sunday September 1, 2013 I made the longest drive I have ever made in my life even though it was only 45 minutes. My kind Vet met me on a Sunday. On Sept 1, 2013 I let go of the one cat I had in my life who told me
"Get up and get going"
I have also loved and lost Mittens, Primper, Smokey Joe, Blackie, Cassie, Ribbon, Tiffy, Momma Kitty, Crippled Kitty and Bandit, Max and Corrie.
Shiloh
I spoke about Shiloh when speaking of Little Grey. I lost her June 12, 2018. She was tied to a tree two houses down from me and when they let her off she always ran to me. She had four liters of puppies and wasn't five years old. The first time I really tried to find where she belonged was when I saw her in front of an abandoned house. She had taken one of her puppies there. Her owner was giving them away and she saw it and was taking them off. She hid that one there. I took it to my Vet and he is now in a loving home. His name is Captain.
It took me a year to get her away from them and when I did she came in to the house with all of the kitties and was such a sweet dog. She never laid on anything hard and she loved her walks with me. Two weeks after we lost Scottie she could not walk or stand up. After a week of tests we discovered she had lung cancer and there was nothing we could do. I sat in the back of our vehicle for two hours as we drove to my regular vet to say goodbye. I know she had to have been in pain but she never let me know it. I miss her. She did not deserve the life she had before she met me but I made sure the year and a half that I had her she knew what love was.
I also rescued two other dogs, Corrie, my Shepard Rottie mix I found at the pound after I lost Max, my doberman, who was going to be given away by the owner. I would love to have another dog, but Little Chelsea gets scared when she hears one bark on TV. I think she has been chased by dogs.
