The Cat

Please, don't worry this blog is not becoming devoted to the kitties. Although I did just post about them on Friday, and now here I am talking about a cat again. No today our lives were completely disrupted by an unknown kitty. I'd like to call him something, but don't even know if he is a he. Although being a marmalade cat the odds are that he is he.

Dana was driving to the minimart to get a soda before heading home when a cat walked out into the road. He noticed the terrible shape the cat was in and pulled over and got out. The cat went over to a pond to get a drink. He called me to tell me what he'd found and ask if I wanted another cat (sure, about as much as I want a hole in my head), but I said that if he could get the cat we'd take him to the vet and try to find him a home. We had a few phone conversations while Dana tried to gain some of the cats trust. That abruptly ended when the cat fell through the ice on the pond (it had a stock heater in it) and Dana rescued the kitty. He put him into the truck and took him home to get a carrier.

So when he went to put kitty into the carrier, he bit Dana. Dana had on his winter gloves, and yet kitty still bit through them and into his skin. I have to say that I'm proud that Dana did not kill the cat right there. Instead he put the carrier in the bed of the truck and went in to wash up. He showed up at work with cat hiding under the backseat. We are so blessed that I work with Rebekah. She used to work at the vet clinic I planned to take him to. So she came out and helped corral the kitty. I had the gloves almost on and was helping push him toward the towel she had ready to grab his scruff. Well after he got blood and pus all over the truck, she and I cornered him in the front and she was able to get him into the carrier. We had to use Dana's brand new Carhart bibs in the process though.

Before I took kitty to the vet I called the dr's office. So while I took the cat to the vet, Dana went to the dr to get a tetanus shot and antibiotics. We are now into this cat about $200 and that is not including the vet bill. At the vet's I could see that kitty's eye is covered in infection. At least 1 paw was definitely bleeding, and there may have been more but I couldn't tell. I talked to him the whole way to the vet. Told him it was ok. If the vet could fix him up good, he would, and if not, he wouldn't have to suffer anymore. The gal that admitted him asked what my price range was. I told them to call if it was going to be over $100. She said if he had to be put down they'd call me tomorrow so I could pick up the carrier. I haven't heard from them. So he will cost right around $100 or he has been put down. I have no attachment to this cat, other than the amount of money invested now into Dana's dr's visit, but I am wondering what will happen to him.

I have to think that, but for the grace of God he could be any one of our cats. Callie at one time had a home, and we found her injured. What if Dana had never come to know of her? No one deserves to suffer, and I can guarantee this poor cat was. I will never know why Dana stopped. How many times have I seen an animal near the road and not stopped? Something about this cat caused him to get out and care, and I love him all the more for it! We don't have the money for the dr's visit. We don't have the money for the vet bill. But sometimes doing the right thing, is more important than what we can afford. Come tomorrow I may be scrambling for a home for this kitty, or picking up an empty carrier and paying for his peaceful end to suffering. Either way we did what was right for him.