So, we’ve been trying to rescue another kitty. It’s going better than our first attempts last winter but not as well as I had initially hoped. What’s the holdup, you ask? Well, it would be another small and fuzzy thing at our house. Meadow – our spoiled, well-fed and sweet little ball of fur isn’t so big on being a big sister. She and Mr. Twister, the all-white tabby we’re trying to adopt now, don’t necessarily hate each other. But my once-fierce kitty is now a cupcake and she cows from him, slinking back into the house whenever she sees him. The other problem is that Meadow has also lost her, um, I was going to say marbles but I’ll hold back and say sharpness. Meadow used to be keenly aware of her surroundings all of the time. But as the tuna-ritas, multiple kitty beds and a basketful of toys have become her way of life, she’s lost her edge. She now blithely wanders around without a care in the world and that, unfortunately, leads her straight into trouble. When she finally notices Mr. Twister, she’s in what I can only assume is her danger zone and she panics and runs away.
For his part, Mr. Twister – a takeoff on his real name of Oliver Twist because I can’t seem to completely fill his belly no matter how much food I give him – doesn’t seem to really care about whether Meadow’s there or not. Unless, of course, there’s food. Then, he cares but honestly, I would too if some well-fed, well-heeled kitty was coming to take my grub.
Now, before you judge her, you need to understand Meadow’s sad history. She was once a stray momma cat, starving to feed her two kitties and spending a couple of harsh winters out in nature. My husband tried for a year to get her to trust him. He only cracked her very skittish soul when she had babies to feed and was literally starving.
It took months of him feeding her for her to finally trust even him. And when she did, the moment was spectacular. One day, he was feeding her and she jumped up into his lap. It was over. Poppa and kitty had become forever bonded. She still chases after him like a puppy out in the back yard. It’s pretty cute.
She finally really trusted him after the second of her two kittens died. Darryl had been feeding her to keep her and the kitties away from the road. But first one disappeared and the other unfortunately got hit. That night, it rained and it broke his heart to see her laying out in the rain, her little sad head getting wet with rain drops. Soon after, she finally trusted him enough to come in and when she did, she spent three days either eating or sleeping. She’d wake up, eat and go back to sleep. She was truly exhausted.
From her humble roots, Meadow became a spoiled kitty. My husband says she won the kitty “mega millions.” I can’t help it. Even telling that story now makes me want to go make her a tuna-rita or find a kitty toy she would enjoy.
And now, she runs this household. I limit vacations to just a few days because she’s scared of visitors coming to the house and doesn’t like the kitty sitters, no matter how kind they are. My husband takes her outside with him and she lays in the garden beds while he weeds. She wakes us up in the mornings with kitty purrs and crawling all over the bed and I’ll admit it, she sits next to me on the barstool as we eat dinner, having climbed up on her little kitty steps. Every night, she lays down between us on the couch for kitty belly rubs.
Now, she’s not only gotten soft but she’s older and she’s still easily spooked. She’s not big on company and would prefer it to be just the three of us. Still, not only do we think that Mr. Twister deserves a chance at a life similar to hers, but we think she would also enjoy the company. But, Mr. Twister is still a young, amorous little guy – we’re still not friends enough to be able to take him to the vet – and Meadow is necessarily cautious. Plus, we don’t want to mix the two cats and potentially get Meadow sick. So, we really need for Mr. Twister to get fixed, all of his immunizations and a well-health checkup before the kitties can become siblings.
So these days when we get the opportunity, we go out and sit by our kitties, helping them to get to know each other. At first, I sit by Twister and Meadow stares accusingly at me from her perch near poppa. Then we switch places. The two cats alternately switch between being somewhat fearful of each other and being totally oblivious of each other.
And so it goes. It’s mid-August. We’ve got a few days before the snow flies in late October. We still have time to make friends.
The Yuppie Homesteader 