(The cat rescue people are always on the look-out for good homes for "barn cats," cats that have been fixed and given shots, but are too feral to be pets. Who knew I could offer up my own house for "crawl space cats.")
The way my house is set-up, at the far end we have a room that is used as an office, and it's the (dog free) room where most of my own cats hang out. One night, my daughter said she thought she saw a cat run down into the heat duct. I checked and all our cats were accounted for. The lightweight plastic vent cover was shoved aside a bit but that didn't seem like anything too concerning. I did have the passing thought that I hoped there wasn't a mouse coming into my house, scurrying by my fat cats to eat out of their food bowls, a la Garfield.
A few days later we picked up a live trap, in the hopes of catching the kitten to get him fixed and see if he could be tame enough to be adopted out. That very same evening, after the trap was set up with food, my daughter came running up to me and said the KITTEN was coming into the office via the heat vent! I snuck in very quietly and sure enough, there he was, crouched behind a desk near the vent. As soon as he saw me he took off again. I got a can of food and hid while he poked his head up and then back down, hungry enough to want the food but not quite willing to take the risk. Finally, he couldn't resist the smell of the food, and when he ran into the room, I slammed the cover back on the vent and we had him. Come on, now I have strays coming into my house?! Where will it end??
(I can't wait to go under the house with a flashlight to find the gap in the ductwork he used as his entryway.)
As it turns out, he's a very nice kitten. He was apparently raised around people before he found himself alone and hungry in our woods. He's been fixed and vetted and I'm sure will be adopted soon. We named him Sherwood: from the bright forest.
A day later, I get a call from my 20 year old. She starts off explaining it's my fault she "turned out like this," which is somewhat concerning because it could mean anything. She finally gets around to telling me what she needs. Someone came to the door at her dad's with a tiny kitten he'd found in the road by their house. She told him it wasn't theirs but she could find someone to take it. Since the dogs at her dad's, and her dad himself, are anti-cat, that someone was me. She said she named it Stella, which became Emory when we realized Stella is most likely a boy. He is a wild boy and just beautiful. The flash washed out some of his color in this picture. In person he is so dark brown he is nearly black. He's too tiny still to be vetted so for now he's hanging out here until he grows a bit.
As sad and somewhat insane as I become at times, trying to make a small difference in the lives of abandoned dogs, I would completely lose my mind if I were to try to tackle the problem of unwanted cats. There are tens of thousands of stray cats in this county alone, and we have a really amazing spay and neuter network. For every five litters of kittens that are saved, ten more "free kitten" signs pop up, and those kittens are handed out like kewpie dolls, too often then abandoned too, having more litters no one wants. During the worst of the kitten season, kittens are euthanized almost every day at the area's "open door" shelter. I cannot imagine anything worse than coming to work to kill kittens. I have nothing but respect for the people who care enough to keep battling the problem, one tiny kitten at a time. PLEASE spay or neuter every cat you have, or come across, or know about. It's the only solution.
Another day or so after Emory came here to live, I walked across the road at work, and there between 2 pastures was a bunny! My next thought after "Aww, look! A bunny!" was "Wait, wild bunnies aren't black with floppy ears!" "Come here, little bunny!" And the bunny came hop hop hopping over to me and let me pick him up. Alrighty! Now I have a bunny, too?! My boss had no idea where it came from and she had the same "what am I going to do with a bunny?!" reaction I was having, when she decided to check with the neighbors on the off chance it was theirs. As it turned out, it was. He had escaped from his pen a few days before. Even though we both had qualms about returning such a small defenseless animal to people who were so haphazard with his care, he went back home again. While I was holding him, I couldn't help but think I do have a rabbit cage here, and I did clean the basement not too long ago and so, how bad could it be?
If you're ever considering getting a bunny as a pet, or a rat, or a bird, or a gerbil, or a snake, or a horse, or just about anything else you can come up with, odds are good you can find whatever you might want in rescue. If people can own it, people will get tired of it and decide it's someone else's problem.
And another thing, if you think getting decent pictures of dogs and puppies can be challenging, just try getting pictures of cats! I had 40 that were a black blur before I got one where you could even see Emory at all!
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