New Family Member

Recently at work I took a break to go sit out in the garden and relax. While I was relaxing and finally enjoying the cooler (84 degrees) weather I spotted a black and white kitty sitting in the bushes. After staring at me for a while and after me making some attempts at getting the kitty to come closer it came over and started rubbing my legs.

I reached down to pet it and aside from some fur and dirt there was nothing but loose skin and bones. The poor thing was starving to death. I didn't have any cat food with me so I sent one of the ladies who works there to the store to get food. While she was running this errand I went back inside and went back to work. Later in the day I went to check on the kitty and again took a seat in the garden. As soon as I was seated the kitty came out of the bushes and jumped up on my lap. He curled up in a ball and purred and rubbed against me. I stroked his fur for a few minutes and when I stopped he stood up on his back legs, placed his front paws around my neck and gave me a kiss on the cheek. He then jumped down and ran back into the bushes.

While he was stretched out I felt his front paws and determined that he had been declawed. When people abandon declawed cats, furious does not even come close to the emotion I feel. I knew right then he was going to have to be caught and taken home by someone, probably me. I called my wife on the cell phone and though she was across town at work she immediately left, went home and got the carrier and came to the kitties rescue. By the time she arrived the cat was sitting comfortably in my lap.

As she walked through the gate she did not hear me yell to take the carrier inside and I would bring the cat to it. The cat saw the carrier and took off into the bushes. Over the course of the following week this scenario was repeated several times. Not being cat people they had little understanding of how to catch this kitty.

Finally one of the cat people in the building teamed up with another cat person and they corralled the cat into the carrier and called me. I called our vet and within the hour the kitty was on the exam table ready for his screening physical and lab tests. I was not about to endanger my other animals by bringing a sick cat into the house.

Before the vet was to see the kitty the tech scanned him for a chip. She ran the scanner all over his body and nothing showed up. I felt much relieved. She then performed a second scan and an ID number popped onto the screen. Crap, I thought. Anyone putting a chip in their animal would surely want them back. I was upset because I was pretty sure the cat had been dumped and giving him back to the same people would just produce the same result. He would be dumped again, or worse.

Under Arizona law the vet has three days to actively pursue finding an owner. The tech came back with the address of where the cat was supposed to live and it was a long way from where we found it.  I said good-bye to the kitty and thought that I would never see him again.

The next morning I called and found out the owner had given the cat away to someone else and did not want it back. The vet was waiting to hear back from the second party. I called again the next day and the second owner said they had given the cat away to someone else and didn't want the cat.  The third day I called about noon and the third owner had not called or contacted them. At that point the vets office said he was going to be mine and I could pick him up later in the day.

I ran very late that day and found myself in a massive traffic jam way across town. I called my wife and asked her to pick up the kitty at the vets. When she picked him up we found out the vet paid out of his pocket to have the cat groomed at the groomers next to his office. This is the same vet who donated money in our cats name to a pet shelter after our kitty died. He has saved the lives of several of our kitties many times and I can't think of a better example of caring for the helpless and homeless. He has also saved us thousands of dollars in vet fees by caring for our homeless brood.

Here is the new member of our household. The post below is of a different Tux kitty in our home. Also a rescued cat.

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