We’ve developed a small habit of adopting stray animals. I can’t tell you how many loose dogs I’ve attempted to coax into my car with intentions of finding their owners on Craigslist and basking in the generosity of their reward money.
The first cat was a little orange and white kitten that showed up at our door about two years ago.
Finding his owners turned into a daycare project. After posting an ad online and taking the kitty in to check for a microchip, the daycare kids and I made “found” posters and went on a hunt to find the kitty’s owners.
When an owner never turned up, I sent the kitty home with a little girl who affectionately named him “Aparcales”.
Don’t ask.
Marcy showed up about six months later in questionable condition. A super cute little kitty with what seemed to be some health problems. I took her in to the humane society hoping the doctors there could patch her up. They assured me that if she could be saved she would be on their website the following Monday, but that it didn’t look good.
I found her on the site that following Monday and I tracked her for weeks (months?). I went round and round on whether or not I should go back and adopt Marci. And then Pat discovered I was tracking the wrong cat in the wrong animal shelter in the wrong city on the wrong side of the United States.
Looks like someone is not as web savvy as she thought she was.
Looks like when a website says Kent, NY it’s not bluffing after all.
Since then we found out Kainoa has cat allergies. I’ve tried everything in my power to fix the problem without actually getting rid of our cats. I think they’ll have heart failure if I move them. So they live in a luxurious cat haven in the garage and thanks in part to Rudy, they never come in the house. Kainoa is never around them.
Enter “Sparkles The Street Cat”.
Two weeks ago she showed up meowing in our garage. Looks like it found the kitty haven and now will not move on. My kids, who show little to no interest in our own cats, have been all over “Sparkles The Street Cat” since her unveiling. Though I’m fairly certain she’s a he…and that he’s not a “street cat”…and that his name is not Sparkles. And yet everyday, when the kids spy Sparkles in our driveway there is a collective “GASP! It’s SPARKLES!!!”
I can’t get rid of this cat…and I daren’t find a home for it because…
Pat took the kids to the park the other night, and while fawning over Rudy some of the neighborhood friends talked about their own pets. A pair of sad sisters reminisced about “Peaches”…their little orange and white kitten who was let out of the house two years ago and never came home.
Ummmmm….
Oops.
(And ps, I don’t know if that website is jacked or what, but after all this time it’s showing that Marcy, the New York City kitty is STILL in a shelter (you’ll see her on page 2). For crying out loud, if you live near Calvarton GO GET THAT KITTY!…just don’t send it to me mkay!?!)
June Freaking Cleaver says
Let’s hope you HAD Peaches – at least she has a home. Far better than the chances she’d have had she not been rescued by you.
I felt sorry for two cats in my life – one immediately got knocked up after moving into our home (and deposited six kittens on my NEW gray carpeting in my bedroom); the other one had hepatitis, and it cost me $600 to get her healthy. And to thank me, she deposited a dead mouse under my pillow right before bedtime.
Our current cat came to us as a surprise gift for The Boy – our ex-daycare provider brought the furball to us 5 years ago, and she’s still harking up hairballs with us as I type.
Cheryl says
DOH!
We are dog people. And we don’t find any stray cats around here. We do see some fat coyotes, though..
Momlissa says
That is hilarious. :)
Orange tabbies rock, btw. I had an orange Tabby named Barney (used to fetch like a dog) and have had another orange Tabby named Mango for 9 years. They are the most dog-like cats around!
Keep us posted on the adventure of Sparkles the Street Cat!
Captivus says
I am definitely a dog person too, but we are temporarily living in a flat right now in Germany so we are thinking about taking in a stray cat…. :)
M.Jay. says
That is so funny, what do you think they will do if they read this post? LOL
Mama Kat says
We told them! I wanted them to know that they didn’t need to worry and that he’s in a very nice home with a little girl who loves him. Hopefully they don’t hate us!
Maya says
Did they want him back? Or are they cool with it, since it’s been so long?
Mama Kat says
No, they didn’t want him back…I’m not sure we could have gotten him back! His new family has paid for many vet bills and I really did do everything I could to find his home before I gave him away. Too bad they didn’t post signs as well!
dysfunctional mom says
OMG, I’m dying! Poor girls. But that’s funny stuff!
Karen & Gerard Zemek says
That’s nice of you to set up the cat haven in your garage. Funny how the kids love Sparkles but don’t much care about your other cats. Do you still have Peaches?
Mama Kat says
You mean Aparcales? Peaches is the cat we gave away. He’s a great big fat cat now. We told the sad sisters that he’s very happy and offered to buy them a new kitten!
Los says
I’m partial to dogs … however, when I worked at a pet shop, there was this kitten … I would take it out of the cage and put in on my shoulder, and unlike the other kittens that would try to jump off, this one stayed on my shoulder, and had no interest in being anywhere else … that’s a kitten I probably would’ve adopted.
Mama Kat says
I like dogs too…but they’re way more work. I think if I were reincarnated into one of the two I’d totally be a cat. I’m stuck up like that…eh, but needy like a dog. So nevermind.
Jennifer says
My stepmother is a serious cat lover. She and my dad used to live on a lot of land and there were a ton of feral cats. She would catch them and take them in and have them fixed. She caught a bunch but she could never catch the one momma cat and every time she had kittens she would bring them to my stepmothers. She would find homes for all of them and insure that they were fixed. She was like her own humane society.
Mama Kat says
That sounds like FUN! Have your mom call me…we can go cat capturing together.
SaucyB says
Love that you do this. I’m a total softie for animals and volunteer at a shelter. I kind of accidentally ‘stole’ someone’s cat too. hey, if your kitty wanders onto my property and has not tags, i will take it in, feed it and take it to my shelter.
Turns out “Jade” was a pure bred, facny shmancy cat that had been accidentally let out by the owners kids. They saw the flyers i had posted around the neighborhood.
Ad you said, oops!
Mama Kat says
It makes me happy that people like you exist though, because I do worry when my cats don’t come home at night. I hope someone is being nice to them. :)
Stephanie says
We are pet lovers too! At one point with puppies and cats we had 16 animals. We are down to 3 dogs and 1 cat now, but I am a sucker for strays and baby animals. I almost brought home a kitten the other day but thankful the lady at the front of the store wanted money for them so it was wasy to walk away. We do have the cat’s food dish out front so in that way I have a lot more cats than the one I claim!
Mama Kat says
Oh I am a SUCKER for baby animals!! SO cute!
Jules says
And THAT’s why we have six cats……
Mama Kat says
I know right!?! They FORCE us to be cat ladies. :)
Audreya says
I am a dog person and allergic to cats. My husband came from a cat family. So when a stray started hanging out around our house a few years ago, he wanted to keep her. As cats go, she was really friendly so he finally talked me into it. Then she had a litter. We found homes for them. We talked about getting her fixed, but she’d only been around a month or so and weren’t sure she’d stay. She had another litter. We found homes for all but one… and then got the mama cat fixed. The other cat we kept was the WORST.CAT.EVER!!! Last year, he got sick. David took him to the vet, where he was hospitalized for 3 days. After David picked him up and paid the tab, the cat managed to escape! Aside from the money, I was glad. A MONTH later, he showed back up at our house. A few months ago, he ran off again and hasn’t been seen since. I’m not really upset about it. Mama Cat, on the other hand, has won me over. :-) The neighbors laugh because a lot of times I’ll kick off my shoe and pet her with my foot. I figure the chances of me accidentally rubbing my eyes with my foot are much lower than with my hands. So, long story still too long for a blog comment, my husband is also a street cat adopter. :-)
Mama Kat says
Kainoa gets really itchy around them…it flares up his eczema. I swear when a nice cat decides it likes you there is just NO shaking it. I tried shooing this one out of our garage and it just flopped on to it’s side and rolled the way cats do when they’re not interested in doing anything you want them to do.
Bianca says
That’s funny, my 68lb puppy does the same flop.
Scargosun says
Aww! You are a good person! I keep vet leashes in my car for just such occasions as stray dogs and kitties.
Stephanie says
Awwww I loved this post! :)
Margaret @ Single and Sane says
My cats came from a shelter and they are the best cats ever. Last summer, a homeless kitty tried to adopt me, and I had to find a shelter for him. Leaving him at the vet for his transfer was so much harder than I ever expected. I had fallen for that little guy. I followed the shelter website and it took about 3 months for him to be adopted. It killed me every time I saw that he was still there.
I’ve seen a couple of homeless-looking cats since then and I refuse to make eye contact. You’re a much better person than I am. ;-)
Lindsay @ Just My Blog says
Heart of gold. Yep. And the cats will use and abuse you for it because that’s what they do. And they’re so darn cute and fluffy and soft that you just can’t turn them away! Good for you for helping out the disadvantaged kitties in the world. :)
angie says
We have this coyote that is always wandering around our neighborhood. I’m starting to feel sorry for the skinny little guy. Almost considered feeding him. Almost. But then I remembered I’m not soft heart-ed like you.
Bianca says
You should feed him a cat….
Dumb Mom says
You love you some stray animals, don’t ya? Think if Pat hadn’t have saved you you would have grown up to be the “Cat Lady”. But, you probably woulda had like a goat in your kitchen and an alligator in your bathtub too. We’d still be pals. I don’t judge.
Marla says
We found Lou the cat in the parking lot of a bar in Atlanta called Lou’s Blues Review. She was about 5 months old at the time — she’s now 14. She always seems annoyed when she hears babies crying, even on TV, and she immediately knew how to use a litter box, so my friends are convinced we must have (inadvertently) catnapped her from someone who had a baby and stop paying attention to their kitten. Or had a baby and took it bar hopping and forgot the cat?
Joy says
sounds like my neighbors who “rescued” my overweight “stray” cat! i had noticed a while ago he wasn’t showing up regularly at home and i was sure he must be stealing some other cat’s food cause afterall he was a pig and never missed a meal. Well one day while out back I saw him in a neighbors back yard as I was walking up to their house I noticed cans of cat food laying around, when I asked the woman who lived there she said “oh yea my hubby feeds him, I told him he wasn’t a stray cause he was so big” I say yep he’s mine you can stop feeding him; well over a year later he still hasn’t come home and can always be seen hanging on their back porch!
Dawn @ Winkasheart Scraps says
I love that you do this, and LOVE the concept of the cat haven in the garage, and I do believe if I didn’t live in an apartment I would have one too! I actually stay away from the humane society because I would get in so much trouble if i had more than the 2 cats I currently have, lol. I always want to take them all home with me.
We are a cat family and you can tell…My Mom, and 2 sisters and I each own 2 cats, and now my daughter has 3 of her own.
Justine says
I used to be a dog person until I got 2 cats. Now I am IN LOVE. One of ours looks just like Sparkles. My other one meows constantly for us to let him out but we live in a city and are afraid to lose him to god-knows-what so we stand our ground against his request but I do feel sad for him. Yet, I would rather he not end up in someone else’s home, although if it was yours, he’d probably be very happy too.
So glad you’re a keeper and finder of cats.
Emmy says
Woops! I won’t tell if you don’t tell…and hey you made posters.
Shelley says
I like cats but I am allergic to them too. We just adopted our dog who was found wandering onto a highway. We love her to death and if it wasn’t for the people who found her and took her in to find a home for her, we would never have gotten to have the best dog in the world and she would have lived a very sad life. Whoever ditched her or lost her and then didn’t claim her should go to hell, I think. People who abuse/neglect children and animals don’t deserve anything more than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
Kimi@SoManyKids says
Oh man…it must be stray cat day. I posted about a Tom who has been hanging around my yard…that and a chicken/roadrunner. Good times.
Jenners says
Sparkles the Street Cat sounds like an SNL skit!
And you’re a catnapper!
Kathy says
I’m a cat person but my hubby is not which means my cats are happy when he’s not home. I’m glad Peaches/Aparcales got a good home and isn’t just roaming the streets. Sparkle looks a little too healthy to be a stray. I’ve gotten almost all my animals as strays. A couple of them even lived with me almost two decades (1 dog: 18 years old when we had to put him down; 1 cat: 19 years old when he died in his sleep). I just can’t leave them to fend for themselves. My Larry cat was a stray and has been with me over a year now.
Rachel @ Mommy Needs a Vacation says
Well the good thing is that if you do have Peaches, at least he is in a good home with a fabulous Mommy who wears fabulous aprons, right?
Also, my sister is a vet at the Humane Society…she would be so proud of all of your rescuing!
Jen says
You have such a big heart. :)
MrsM says
Have you tried apple cider vinegar? If you mix 2 tbsp in with 16 ounces of orange juice every day it doesn’t taste nearly as nasty and I hold it responsible for clearing up my own cat issues well enough to get our kids a kitty (named Princess Pepperdoodle Von Yum Yum) who not only snuggles with me, but jumps all over my laptop while I’m typing and paws my face while I’m sleeping without allergy issues (there are other issues with the face pawing/computer stomping but they’re not allergy related).
Amanda says
I’ve never taken in strays (I have an Aunt that does that but its like 5 cats at a time) but I have been noticing two cats near our house, a black cat and a tiger. I’m very tempted to take them in…..that stinks that your son is allergic, I don’t know what I would do if I had pet allergies, I love cats and dogs way too much!
Jade says
we had the best neighborhood cat…her name was “Thomas,” she actually belonged to our neighbor, but every home wanted Thomas to be theirs…affectionate, brave, mouser, friendly! She disappeared about six months ago.
we know you have her, and we want her back!
Peg says
I can’t say anything. I’m the crazy cat lady of our neighborhood. I think I have an invisable tuna sign above my house that says “Welcome all strays!” I HAD 10 but have pared it down to 6. Only one on purpose. The others are strays that took up here or their offspring! All are now fixed and fat and happy! I found this organization here called “Cat Snip” (I know… isn’t that just too cute) and it’s a mobile cat spay neuter clinic that does the deal for WAY cheap. I got FOUR cats fixed for what it would have cost for ONE at the vet! SCORE!
Carla - Jill of All Trades says
Oh I love orange kitties. We had four babies for 17 years (actually one passed at 12 years) and the last three got a virus which took our very healthy cats within 2 weeks. It was heartbreaking but I think at the time was a blessing as we were getting ready, even though we didn’t know at the time, to move. We have not replaced them as The Hubby does not like cats and in 34 years of marriage I made him live with cats for 24 of those years. In the meantime we found out that living without cats our youngest girl (25 now) was allergic the whole time. Because she was raised in the house with them though I guess she had an immunity built up. Who knew, but it is not a severe allergy thank goodness as the oldest girl (31) volunteers for the local Street Cats Rescue and has three cats so I still get my cat fix when I need it. Good luck with it all.