This story was originally shared on the Animal Rescue Website. Submit your own rescue story here. Your story could be the next featured on Blog!
When I moved to my town 25 years ago, I saw a lot of feral cats in the area. My search for a shelter turned empty. We don’t have one to serve our town. However, my search put me in touch with a local lifeguard who offered to lend me traps and teach me how to use them. Thus began my rescue career.
My efforts caught the attention of the little weekly newspaper, and they did a story about the cats. During the interview, I mentioned that I have a number of feral cats that have been killed and slaughtered, but the owner of the property where I found them doesn’t want them back. That’s in the story, and I got a call from a woman named Lori, who owned a farm. We became friends because she is also an animal lover. Lori brought four feral cats to live on her farm. She also met a lifeguard who taught me how to set traps and started fostering her kittens.
One Saturday, I knocked on the door to find the newspaper editor holding a tiny black cat. She and several others volunteered to fix an elderly woman’s home. They found the kitten while cleaning the brush. It still has the umbilical cord intact. She wanted me to take it, which I did.
I named it Itsy because I don’t know the gender. For two days, I bottle-fed the kitten, taking it everywhere. On Monday, I got a call. They believe they have found the mother cat, and have more kittens. They weren’t sure where they were. I told Lori, and she offered to see me to help find them.
When Lori, my husband, and I arrived at the house, the elderly woman was standing on the porch holding a coffee can with a small black kitten inside. A beautiful purebred Siamese cat sat beside her. I took the kitten out of the can and set it down in front of the Siamese. She sniffed it and then took it from my hand. She trotted after the kitten in her mouth to a garage in the next house and disappeared inside. Where is she going?
I went around checking every nook and cranny and discovered an old rusty wood stove lying in the corner. We looked inside and found the little family. We lured mama into a box with some canned goods and then pulled out three black kittens. After reuniting with Itsy at home, we named our two children Bitsy and Spider. The fourth one becomes Coffee because of the coffee can.
After the kittens were weaned, the mother cat was assigned to a Siamese rescue organization. Three of the kittens have been adopted. The fourth one is a bit more reserved but very sweet. I was very attached to him, but wanted to save my house for people who couldn’t afford it. It took a while, but I finally found a family to adopt him. It’s hard for him to be there.
The next day, the mother called me to say she had seen a worm on him, and they didn’t want him anymore. He had been given full treatment with an anthelmintic, I didn’t believe it for a minute, but I was so reassured that I didn’t argue with her anymore. I told her I would be there in half an hour with her check still unwashed. I flew to that house and found him under a couch. His little face brightened up a lot when he saw me. I gratefully picked him up and put him in my car. On the way home, I told him he was my cat and I would never let him go again.
Coffee grew up to be a 16-pound big cat, not just big fat. We said, “Mom is Siamese, but dad’s a leopard.” It is the most docile and comfortable cat. Nothing upsets him. He also has a great friendly personality. He is a person who speaks with a Siamese accent. I call him my Siamese in black pajamas.
Over the next 19 years, he made friends with the rescuers and fosters who arrived. They love him! I regularly see him in the middle of a bunch of cats, all of them trying to lie next to Coffee. Ever since he was a kitten, he’d always liked to snuggle up next to me, snuggled under my arm. The place seemed empty now so he disappeared. He is the ideal cat in many ways. People really miss getting rid of black cats just because of their color.
As for Lori, almost 20 years ago, she said she wanted to start her own rescue. I told her that I would support and help her in any way I could. Currently, thousands of cats and dogs have been saved by her. It has grown a lot over the years and now has lots of volunteers, a shelter that we rent, and outdoor clinics with local mobile units. Yes, my husband and I are still helping. We clean, feed and help raise funds. We organize students from the university where my husband teaches to help with the weekly cleaning. We have seen so many cats come and go over the years. We also did a lot of training. We’ve fallen in love with a lot of them, but none can replace Coffee.
Story submitted by Sharon Thompson from Grove City, Pennsylvania.
Coffee’s story was originally shared on The Animal Rescue Site. Share your own rescue story here!
