Thursday, December 6, 2018

Rescued

When I started grocery shopping for Margaret it was summertime. She is an 87 year old, frail lonely woman living with her cat. But I noticed that whenever I came to her porch there were often one or two small cats eyeing me from behind the bushes. Then I noticed that Margaret was feeding these cats and had a very sweet relationship with them. She would call them and they came running to be pet and fed. A couple of them were small and thin but I didn’t think too much about it as they were being taken care of.




Then autumn came and I began to get concerned about what the cats would do once the cold weather arrived. Margaret did not seem bothered as she said there were stray cats around for as long as she lived there and they seem to take care of themselves. But then she told me a story of when there was a pregnant cat and she put out a box for her to have her babies in, When Margaret came out the next morning they had all froze to death.

This story gave me many a sleepless night, especially as the long term forecast was for single digit nighttime temperatures. I made some calls to animal shelters only to find out they were all full. Many places I called didn’t even return my calls. One woman I spoke to said that if I could trap them, she might be able to get them into a spay/neuter clinic. Although I was tempted, I had to decline because of the health threat they would pose my own pets.

Then I called the woman, Maria, who had fostered our cats last year. She has 6 of her own, but provides a foster room and care to strays until they can be medically cleared and are appropriate for adoption. Unfortunately her foster room was also all filled up. 

With images of frozen kittens still keeping me up at night I decided I could at least build them a shelter to stay warm and referred to YouTube, the ultimate authority on such things. There I found a great idea - to build a shelter from a large Coleman cooler - and went in search of one. Strangely they are difficult to find this time of year. (Don’t people still tailgate at football games?) Anyway, I bought the biggest one I could find, cut a hole in its side and filled it with a thick layer of straw as instructed. I brought it over to Margaret’s porch and she was thrilled. As were the kitties who began to use it within 10 minutes of me dropping it off.




But then Maria called me back. She too couldn’t stand the thought of little ones out in arctic
temperatures and offered to come and try to trap them and bring the back to her house. And so last Saturday she drove almost an hour and set out traps with food. There was a lot of tension between Margaret who thought she could just pick up ‘her’ cats and put them in carriers (not) and Maria who just wanted to trap them and get them back to her house. After much brouhaha between the women, two cats (one we thought was the mom) were lured into the traps but then the other two scattered in fear. Maria then offered to come back yet again that evening and try for the other two cats.

At this point Margaret was grumbling that she was losing her babies who depended on her. I was almost in tears thinking that now there were two motherless kittens who were scared to death and out on their own. But Maria generously offered to return that night and we trapped the two remaining cats. It was both traumatic and gratifying at the same time.

Maria sent me a few photos of the kitties, now adapting to her basement. They all had worms and will all be spayed/neutered and vaccinated. I was feeling pretty good about myself. But three days later Margaret called me again to say there was a 5th cat and it was only a baby. Crap. All I could think about was how this one littlest kitten had been all alone for 3 days in the freezing cold having no idea what happened to its family. I was distraught and weepy and once again called Maria. Once again she drive 2 hours round trip. Once again she brought yet another kitten into her home.

Throughout this process I was an emotional mess. I would tear up at the thought of a frightened cat, lose sleep over the dropping night time temperatures and agonize over where the kittens had spent the recent snowstorm. Martha kept (unhelpfully) telling me about all the other little critters who live outside and how there will always be stray and feral cats. “You can’t save them all” she kept saying, which only got me more depressed.

Then a friend reminded me of the story about the boy and the starfish which you’ve probably all heard:

A man was walking on a beach and saw a young boy throwing objects into the ocean. He approached the child and noticed that the young lad was picking up a starfish and gently tossing it back into the ocean.

The man said, “Young man, what are you doing?”

The child replied, “These starfish have drifted up on the shore and they need water to live, so I’m saving their lives by putting them back in the ocean.”

The man said, “You must be kidding me! Look at all these starfish. There must be thousands of them. How in the world can you save them all, and what difference could it possibly make?”

The young boy reached down, picked up a starfish and tossed it into the ocean. He then turned to the man and said, “It made a difference to that one.”



The world is such a mess right now with so much hate and divisive fear mongering. Sometimes it is so overwhelming and I feel powerless to do anything at all, much less make any kind of a dent in it. It can be pretty f*cking depressing.  I’m grateful that my friend reminded me of the starfish story because in the midst of all the meanness and hate, there are 5 little kittens who are safe and warm and fed and, when they are ready, will be placed in forever homes. It doesn’t make an ounce of difference to the world, but it makes a difference to them. It’s all I’ve got right now and it it will have to be enough.


Not all of us can do great things, 
but we can do small things with great love.

 - Mother Teresa

14 comments:

  1. I admire your kind heart - I have more in common with Martha than I do with you on this front - but I am so grateful there are people out there who DO care this much and make a difference in THIS way. It's important; especially with all the hate that exists in the world right now.

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    1. Right now I think I like animals much more than most people.

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  2. I've always loved that starfish story - all you can do is save one at a time. And it matters. We built a cat shelter out of two plastic tubs fitted into each other with styrofoam in between the walls for insulation and a hole cut in front. We can tell from the muddy prints on the towel that lines its floor that someone is using it. We also cut a cat door into our gardening shed and put a cat bed in there with water and some food. It's a start.

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    1. That's great! Our yard seems to attract skunks and possums who are well adapted to winter but neither of which we are encouraging. I just don't understand people who dump kittens in the woods to fend for themselves.

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  3. It's all we can do and thank you for reminding me.

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    Replies
    1. You do more than more fair share to make this world a better place. Thank you!

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  4. Oh, sweetie! Thank you for making a difference, one kitten at a time.
    xoxox

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    1. And then there were two more! All now safe and warm and receiving medical treatment in foster care. I am so grateful for those people.

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  5. A big heart indeed. And making a difference...

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    Replies
    1. Well, at least to six little kittens

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  6. this is exactly what's needed. step by step, act by act. thank you so much for doing this for these 5 kittens. and thanks to Maria.

    I saw this on someone's fb yesterday and I think you'll appreciate it:
    "Do not be daunted
    by the enormity
    of the world's grief.
    Do justly, now.
    Walk humbly, now.
    You are not obligated
    to complete the work,
    but neither are you free
    to abandon it.
    ----the Talmud

    love to you, 8 xoxo

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  7. While I am daunted by the enormity of the world's grief, I have made peace with my limitations in it. Well, sometimes. Thanks for sharing the quote, it is a great reminder. Love to you K!

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  8. You did more than many would have. You made a difference. You make a difference.

    Peace be with you.

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  9. Many Thanks for the shared this informative and interesting post with me.
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    ReplyDelete