# A cat and a storm



## Straysmommy (Dec 23, 2010)

We had an unusually bad storm for a few days and I knew I'd lose some stray to it. I trapped one and kept her in my home, but my heart went out for the others. 

One of them indeed disappeared. A big, fat, grey cat that lived under the bushes at the corner. She was sick and not young. Gums infection. I called and called after the storm, but never saw her again. I miss her terribly. 

Today a neighbor I'd never seen introduced herself to me as I fed the strays, and we chatted for a while. Turns out she was the mysterious feeder who sometimes leaves food for my strays and changes their water. Among other things she commented on in passing, she told me she'd adopted a cat before the storm. A big, fat, grey cat that lived under the bushes at the corner. She was sick and not young. Gums infection.

I cried from happiness.


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## Jetlaya67 (Sep 26, 2012)

What a great ending for that cat! So glad she is safe and taken care of. I am also glad you know what happened to her. Not knowing is the worst.


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## howsefrau32 (Mar 6, 2013)

Oh, that made me tear up with happy tears!!!! See!! This is what I always have to tell myself. When a stray/feral you have been caring for, or even an indoor/outdoor kitty disappears, there is a very good chance that some other cat loving person, like we are, has taken that kitty in. That really does happen!! This just reinforced my belief that it does. I'm so happy for you!!! And for big, fat gray, gum infected kitty


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## Straysmommy (Dec 23, 2010)

She cost the neighbor quite a bit of money, but now her gums are ok. She's not at all sure she wants to stay indoors, though. She's taking her time to decide. But her weakness is belly rubs, and the neighbor has plenty of those for her, so for now she's staying put... 

During a terrible storm a few years ago we lost a kitten whom his stray mother was still nursing. It was last seen by the posh building behind ours. We were very sad when we realized after the storm. 

1.5 years later, a very distressed woman came up to us in the street as I was feeding and asked if we could help look for her beloved princess that had bolted out the door during a moment of distraction. She told us in tears how she had adopted her princess 1.5 years before, during a terrible storm. The tiny kitten had left her mother cat and litter mates behind, gone up to the entrance to the posh building and cried and cried till some human would break down and adopt her. The photo of the now grown cat looked the same as her stray litter mates. 

(by the way, I told her to look inside the building and not outside, and she indeed found the princess there)


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## Straysmommy (Dec 23, 2010)

One more: my friend was worried sick about a tiny, black kitten living by a busy road. We tried to move him, but he'd go back. While my friend was desperately trying to find a solution (hardly any adoptions here and no shelters), the kitten obviously disappeared. She talked to neighbors trying to find out how it had died.

'Died? Well no, he's fine and happy in my home' said a neighbor 'I'm the one that will be killed, by my husband, for adopting yet one more kitten. But I just couldn't leave him by that busy road.'

And the last one...

'Excuse me, I see you feed the strays around here...maybe you know what became of a poor tuxedo that used to sit on that tree?'
'Oh her, yup, she's up there in Heaven..." I pointed upwards, with a sad grimace.
'I imagined as much. Poor thing. She wanted so much for someone to adopt her...' the neighbor teared up 'I knew she wouldn't last long...'
'Aha. She wasn't made for the streets, couldn't survive them. Which is why she's right now waiting for me to go back upstairs' I pointed upwards again 'and serve her chicken breast dinner in bed because getting out from under the goose down duvet on my bed would be too much of an inconvenience. Her life is Heaven. On Earth. And my wallet is thinner.'


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## Straysmommy (Dec 23, 2010)

housefrau, I couldn't agree more. At least in my neighborhood, the chances of them disappearing due to adoption are at least 50%, so I work hard at not torturing myself. In the case of the fat, sick cat, I didn't dare hope, though, as only an angel would've adopted an old, sick cat. Indeed, she found an angel.


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## 10cats2dogs (Jun 16, 2013)

Straysmommy,
I so enjoy reading any of your posts! I Love these stories, and it gives me hope, that there are still some wonderful people out there!
Sharon


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## cat owner again (Dec 14, 2012)

I loved the stories too.


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## howsefrau32 (Mar 6, 2013)

I do too. Love, love, love hearing stories with happy endings like these.


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## howsefrau32 (Mar 6, 2013)

Straysmommy said:


> housefrau, I couldn't agree more. At least in my neighborhood, the chances of them disappearing due to adoption are at least 50%, so I work hard at not torturing myself. In the case of the fat, sick cat, I didn't dare hope, though, as only an angel would've adopted an old, sick cat. Indeed, she found an angel.


Yes, but we are lucky that there are some people like us, who I guess we are the angels, lol, who absolutely would take in an old, sick cat with lots of problems. As long as there are crazy cat ladies out there, there will always be places for kitties like that to go. Sadly though, I think there are not enough of us in the world. But we do exist!!


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## Straysmommy (Dec 23, 2010)

Thank you all!

And the very last one...

Last summer, while I was feeding the strays in the middle of the night, a man started following me. I told him to stop or I'd scream. He explained, as his girlfriend joined us, that he was from another neighborhood, looking for his stray cat that a cruel neighbor had confessed to have trapped and relocated to the city park a few days before. He was hopeful I might've seen it. 

How could he think his cat would survive and if it did, what were the chances of it reaching my feeding station, of all places??? I reluctantly agreed to take his phone number anyway and take a quick glance at a photo. I laughed because the cat looked like a copy of one of my strays, whom I've been caring for years. 

A couple weeks later, one of my strays was becoming at times unresponsive. Where she always comes and sits on my lap as soon as I call her name, she'd often look away from me, indifferent. She wouldn't sit in her usual place on the garden bench. Her eyes were so sad, she seemed depressed… I was worried. Once, I went up to her, crouched and asked her why. As I was talking to her, my eyes fell on the nearby bench...she was sitting happily in her place on the bench waiting for me!! So who was this cat I was talking to??? I found the crumpled paper slip in my feeding bag and dialled. The man came. The cat's eyes lit up, all the sadness suddenly gone. They left in each other's arms, blissed.


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## cat owner again (Dec 14, 2012)

OK it's time for a book or article. I would save these stories. They lighten one's heart.


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## Jenny bf (Jul 13, 2013)

What a wonderful post. Thrilled that the cat in the storm found this wonderful new home but all these stories warm my heart.


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## howsefrau32 (Mar 6, 2013)

cat owner again said:


> OK it's time for a book or article. I would save these stories. They lighten one's heart.


I agree, many here would have some wonderful stories to add.

straysmommy - that was such a sweet story! I'm so happy they were reunited and that it all had a happy ending.


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## Artiesmom1 (Jan 28, 2014)

Thank you for all these great stories...a natural story telling, except these are true. thanks again


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## Straysmommy (Dec 23, 2010)

Before I started devoting myself to stray cats, I used to belong to a ring of fanfic writers on the web, we wrote hurt/comfort stories. I love the genre. But all these stories I told above are true, I know because they all happened to my strays. 

I wanted to clarify about the black kitten by the dangerous road that my friend didn't adopt him because she was unemployed and had already adopted 18 sick kittens from the street that winter. They're all now healthy adults. 

And for sustainance, she now has a small hospital for strays in her home. Her customers are compassionate people who save a lot in hospitalization at a vet's, which is very expensive, and so are able to provide treatment to many strays. She also gets some very expensive treatments for almost free for these cats, such as a prominent cat eye specialist who saved a kitten from being put down, he now at least sees like behind a curtain and is a happy adult.


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## Arianwen (Jun 3, 2012)

This is such an inspiring thread.


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