Ulysses was found in a bag in the rain (with his brother who is at the
RB) and TED thinks someone tried to suffocate them! The two were badly
dehydrated, underweight and had the worst case of earmites the TED had
ever seen but we cleared that up in a few weeks. The student who found
them asked me (having heard I was a cat loving softee!) to find them
homes as he was unable to have them in his apt and his roomies were
allergic. I found them a home....mine! Ulysses turned 12 this month.
Squeak must have been tossed away or lost as he had been neutered and
litter trained when he found my house. He came around for a year before
my landlady (elderly) started to feed him sporadically. One night he
showed up at the house after being away several days. His back leg was
swollen two or three times normal and he wasn't walking on it.
I rushed him to the emergency room and TED said he would have died if we
hadn't!!!! :-( He had been bit twice on the bottom of his foot and it
abcessed. TED said the only reason he was even still alive was that it
appeared to have broken open but he was very dehydrated and my
roomate and landlady and I were SO glad he trusted us enough to come
out of hiding to beg for food! Then we started feeding him regularly
and named him, of course! One day he showed up with his inner eyelid
closed and refused to eat. Another trip to TED and a FIVE day stay. A
bite or scratch on his head was about to abcess. Poor baby.
Squeak moved in with us after that. His mama, my roomate, said he
needed hoomins to love him and save him from doing stupid things! Seems
that TED was of the opinion that Squeak got his wounds in fights for
food and since Squeak was sooooo skinny (smallest male kitty TED ever
saw at about 7 pounds at about 2yrs old) we figured that TED was right.
Squeak is a healthy, sleek 11 pounds now and a lapfungus of the highest
degree! He LOVES attention and smurgles.
Longfellow's story isn't quite as dramatic as Squeak's or Ulysses' but
close. He was a stray that adopted my landlady and she finally caved in
and adopted *him* officially. He also had been neutered. Newspaper
notices and signs around the neighborhood brought no response so he had
a new home. We guessed he had been abandoned or lost in a move.
He was doted on and pampered royally for about two years. Then his
owner died, leaving him to me. Poor kitty was in the house when she
collapsed and the emergency crew came. He was terrified!
The day she took him in officially (and many times later!) she asked me
and my roomate to take care of him if anything happened to her. She
reminded me only a few months before her death! So sweet, loving
Longfellow found a new mama- me!
Longfellow had been an indoor/outdoor kitty, but has since been indoors
only because of my fear he'll cross streets trying to return to his old
home. He may learn the art of walking a hoomin-on-a-string soon,
though!
Amber (anti amfur hc* honorary cat)