Ghost comes home......

Random News Flash!!!

I have a litter of kittens.

OK, so this isn’t a BAD thing, but it does make life a little more hectic. Why? I mean, I don’t need critters, the beaten, the broken and the damned come here regularly and stay to heal or live out the remainder of their days. My kitchen looks like E.R. I have four large locked medical cabinets wall mounted full of supplies and if the world ends I plan on packing them up and becoming a field surgeon.

But….

About two months ago I noticed two new cats in the neighborhood. They were about 6 months old, and in really good shape. Clean, well fed. They looked like littermates. I guessed a male and female from their build. Both were white with black markings, the male an angora looking long hair, the female a sleek and well fed short hair.

They stayed a few days and then vanished.

Then I saw the female again about a month later. I thought…”I bet she is pregnant’ and ‘I bet someone dumped those two cats.’

But Mama kitty was already afraid.

I was feeding Abby, because Abby has another clutch of babies and her two males are helping feed them and I noticed that the food was vanishing much faster than the three crows could take it, especially when I knew they were not around.

One morning I saw mama kitty taking the crows food and running with it. Cheese, chicken, bread…it did not matter. She looked thinner.

So I made a feeding station and fed her. I also fed the rest of the dumped cats in the neighborhood, the crows, the birds and random possums.

Mama didn’t let me get close to her, so I could not tell if she had been pregnant and had babies, or had simply lived really rough and was skinny.

Then one morning I was outside drinking coffee and watching the bugs and butterflies and I saw a flash of white under my car…a very little white thing.

I thought “Damn it, it’s a rat! Great, I have rats coming right up to my house.”

But it wasn’t.

It was a kitten. It was ‘Ghost’, my rarest flower who I lost, and who always comes back.

Watching, four more kittens and mama came through a hole in the fence from the abandoned trashed and derelict halfway house next door (great neighbors, dual diagnosis men with no supervision, some of whom still try to camp there until the police route them out,) and mama and the kittens played in my driveway.

I put out food and watched them eat. The kittens were skin and bones, and so was mama. They ate several cans of cat food, a whole chicken from the ‘fridge and about a pound of dry kibble. And water, they were so thirsty.

They stayed a while then vanished. They did not come back.

So I embarked on a sacred quest to find them, as one was Ghost and I was not going to let her grow up starved, flea ridden, feral and unfixed. Of course, I told the cat gods if I took one I would take them all in and care for them, and get them homes.

I searched high and low. Finally, one night I got my business card out and went house to house.

I found them, living in a backyard. The kind family let me bring my trap and we started the long process of trapping all the kittens and mama cat.

The male cat is still at large, I have seen him once. He is emaciated, covered in dirt, burs and car oil. He was standing at my door looking for his sister, for food, for something, but he ran from me. I still put out food in hopes he learns to come close and I can trap and neuter him.

Here is their story…..

Our mother and father were once loved. We know that because mama had us near people, under a shed in a back yard. But people are cruel too, because mother and father were happy until they were put into a box and driven far away. They were dumped out on a street and left staring after the car. They ran.

Mother ran her nails off. She was chased, hit, kicked, cornered by dogs and she had to find food out of garbage cans. But she had us in a quiet place.

We grew, slowly. There was not enough food so there was not enough milk, so we were small. But mama loved us and kept us safe.

One of us was different. One of us was not wild and knew something.

I am Ghost, the kitten who knew. I found the way to the witches house and waited to be seen. I knew the way home.

I am Wu, the short haired boy. I know how to be sweet and sleep in your arms now. I am all black.

I am Vlad, the almost twin of Ghost, but I am a boy and have long hair like my father. I am white with black spots. Pumpkin’s dad named me. Maybe I will go live with him.

I am Na’vi, the girl who is quiet. I have long hair and am black.

I am Fire, the girl who looks like Boogar and hisses still. I am learning to lay in peoples arms.

I am Mama. I sit and wait for food huddled in the corner of a cage. I tore my nails off trying to get indoors to my kittens, then tore my nails until they ran with blood trying to escape out the windows. I am confused. I am spayed now. I am vaccinated. I wait confused for food and water, and it is fresh and clean. But I do not trust anyone, and I may never trust them again.

I will be let go, when my vaccinations are finished. I will have a backyard with chickens, a pond, mice and a garage full of hiding places. I will be safe if I want to stay, but I am confused.

I was somebody’s pet. They threw me away and I may never heal.

Sad, isn’t it?

So, these kittens ARE up for adoption. In order to adopt one you must be able to come pick it up, provide it a forever indoor home, agree to keep up on medica care, handle them allot…and no declawing.

Boogar is being ‘uncle’ to them right now. Each kitten spends time with Boogar, learning that he is OK with people. He grooms them, squishes them flat, eats with them and watches them.

Mama? I wish she had a home to go to. I wish she could trust again.

But she was thrown away.