Note: For those who don’t know, we have five rescue cats. All came to us by way of our backyard. They are all sweet, funny and now healthy but they shared some distinct traits when we adopted them: they were hungry, full of parasites and at some level of sickness. Each took his or her time trusting us, except for Biscuits and our littlest one, Dash. (Dash was a three-pound kitten abandoned by his mom under our back deck. We literally adopted him in a day.) Biscuits is our latest rescue and unlike the others, he was never feral. Nope, Biscuits was a drop-off. We have some community fishing ponds near us and occasionally, it can become a spot to drop off an unwanted pet. I once found abandoned bunnies. Biscuits, on the other hand, found us. We were in the backyard with three of our other rescues and I was using my “mom voice”, which attracts all of our pets. Biscuits ran into our backyard, squawking all the way. Less than two weeks later – the time it took for him to truly trust us and let us near – he was ensconced in my office on his way to becoming our fourth “foster fail.” This is an open letter to whoever dropped him off:
Hi there. I just wanted to give you an update on the sweet 10-pound tuxedo cat with the heart on his chest that you dropped off at the fishing ponds. He’s adopted now and doing super well. I’m not sure what you called him, but we named him Biscuits. As soon as he wandered into the backyard and was treated nicely, he began making furious biscuits in the grass. He was literally tearing up the yard. You could also hear his purrs fifteen feet away – as close as he initially let us get. He was so happy to be found.
These days, he’s just the sweetest little boy. At first, he had to make quite a few trips to the veterinarian, but he’s healthy and neutered now. All that sweetness when he was still yours? It’s amplified now. He turned incredibly cuddly after being neutered and he just loves being loved. He would prefer to be carried around the house all day or, if his humans are watching TV at night, he likes to curl up on someone’s lap and fall asleep. Sometimes, he’ll give your lap a break and lay right beside you, but he really does prefer to have a human arm around him. He’s also getting a big tummy! He was a bit scrawny when he first came to live with us but all of that healthy food plus two snacks a day with his siblings has helped him to fill out. When he’s not lounging, however, he actively likes to play with his brothers. Chase is a big game around here and thanks to some Christmas gifts, there are new places to hide and sneak attack from.
I think about you often and what led you to dropping him off. He’s so darned sweet and so human-oriented that he appears to have been treated well up until the drop-off. I’m truly grateful for that. Otherwise, he wouldn’t like people so much and literally anyone can hold him. He’s like the mayor of our house. Anyone who comes in can scoop him up and he’ll immediately start purring. Since he wasn’t neutered, I wonder if it was the cost of the pending vet care that caused you to drop him off. I believe he probably picked up the two parasites he had when we adopted him because he was making a small subsistence living on what he could catch and those rodents had parasites. So, I don’t think he was probably sick when you left him off.
He does like a lot of attention, so was it that he was too needy for you? Were you too busy or couldn’t commit to a pet? He literally had one accident before routinely using the litter box and he had no problems at all adjusting to cat food. So, he didn’t seem like too much trouble to me, but I don’t know your circumstances.
Mostly, I wonder if you think about him or worry about what happened to him. I’ll be honest here, I want you to feel bad. Don’t ever get another pet. Having a pet means committing to meeting their needs. Let them have homes where they will be well-cared for. Biscuits got extremely lucky. He should be dead by now, probably of starvation as parasites took over eating whatever food he could ingest. In a way, I’m not sorry if this makes you feel bad. It angers me that you could drop off a largely defenseless pet with no real survival skills and simply walk away. He had no food, water or shelter. People think cats will just naturally hunt and survive, but I’ll give you the sad truth: they often just die. That breaks my heart.
On the other hand, I also want you to know he’s doing well. I want you to know he’s just about the sweetest boy we’ve ever met and he’s living the life of his dreams. As much as I want you to feel bad, I also want you to be comforted by how well he’s doing now. He is honestly just the most loving guy. When he’s not in someone’s lap or playing with his brothers, he’s got at least 10 kitty “sleeping spots” to choose from. Sometimes, he gets lucky and he’s able to share a bed with at least one of his brothers, if not two. That seems to be a real sweet moment around here.
Finally, I want you to know that he will never have to worry again. He will be safe, well-cared for and loved. He will always have enough to eat, safe water to drink, a warm, dry place to sleep and a plethora of toys and brothers (and a sister, but she’s much older) to keep him company, along with his new mom and dad. He can have as much love as he wants, whenever he wants. He has a family now and he’s as much a part of our family as any other heartbeat that lives here. He will continue to get regular vet care and while he may have to go on a little bit of a diet soon, he will never have to fear where his next meal is coming from.
I guess what I need you to know is that he is so loved. As angry as I am at you, I am also so incredibly grateful. We have this sweet, funny, squawky little extra heartbeat to love around here and he has brought us so much joy. Thank you for that. I couldn’t imagine our life without him.
The Yuppie Homesteader 