RERUN - March 19, 2015

March 19, 2015

Thought I would share this story with you - I just read about it this morning:

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) - A cat that vanished in South Carolina two years ago is going home after ending up nearly 2,000 miles away in Southern California. Kevin the orange tabby is leaving Palm Springs on Wednesday after disappearing from Anderson, South Carolina, in 2013. John Welsh of Riverside County Animal Services says the cat turned up in early March inside a U-Haul trailer a woman had driven across the country. During a routine inspection, the inspector heard meowing. The driver says she didn't know Kevin was inside. The dehydrated cat was taken to a shelter. His microchip helped track down owner Cheryl Walls, who jokes that Kevin has seen more of the country than her. She says somebody must have cared for Kevin. But who -- and how Kevin got into the trailer -- are mysteries.

Read More at: http://13wham.com//news/features/nation-news/stories/missing-sc-cat-found-2-years-later-ca-2766.shtml

Pretty amazing!~

All is well this morning.  It is a nippy 22 degrees out.  Cold enough to be able to walk on top of the snow, kind of like JC walking on the water!  I am seeing more and more cats out now.  On my way to do my dreaded first feeding spot on Parsells, I spotted a black and white cat - of course, I immediately pull over whenever this happens and grab a paper bowl or two, get out, and fill the bowls with food and water.  This baby came over and started to hungrily gobble the food down.  Breaks my heart, but knowing I fed a hungry animal makes it easier.  As I drove off, I knew I would be keeping an eye out for this guy every morning to come.

At my Hayward location, I thought I could hear a tinkling behind me, and sure enough, there was a very gorgeous fluffy grey cat with a collar and tag on.  I saw Petey and Paulie at my second Parsells location, waiting hungrily for their food.  Two beautiful reds.  There is a whole colony of brown tabbies at the Garson/Hayward locations.  A beautiful grey cat on Pennsylvania and Second that I have been feeding for over a year now meows like crazy when I pull up.  This is where I rescued Wally (#2) in the fall of last year and adopted out to Alex, the 89-year-old gentleman who ADORES him.  There is another black and white kitty on 3rd and Central that waits for me each morning, never letting me get too close.  As I drove off I was thinking that I must be his only human contact each day.  The only one, and that's only for one minute of the day.  How lonely that must be.  I wonder if cats feel lonely.  I thought he must be glad I am going so that he can eat, and then curl back up inside the shelter there on the porch and get some sleep.  At least I hope he does.

Milly

Vilified, scrutinized, and misunderstood, while there are many of us that feed, care, and advocate for the feral and homeless cats out there, the general consensus surrounding these cats is filled with misconceptions.    Pet cats and homeless cats are really the same.  The care and compassion we give our animals at home should be the same as what we do for our homeless creatures, even if we can't pet them.  Each has a personality and individuality, and each would have a good story to tell.

That's why in the darkness and quiet of the morning if you are out in the neighborhoods I go into, you will hear someone having a one-sided conversation and making a lot of kissing type noises... and that would be me.  :)

One last thing I thought of - you know why city and county and governments don't step up and do more for the animals?  Cruelty, overpopulation?  Because animals don't vote.  If they did, we would have a lot more help with these problems, eh?

"Hurt no living thing:

Ladybird, nor butterfly,

Nor moth with dusty wing."