Last night, as I was walking home, I came across a cat. I often see cats in my neighborhood, both strays or indoor/outdoor cats. This one was different. She appeared to be a kitten (about six months old was my guess). She also seemed to be a purebred Abyssinian. She had no collar.
Two possibilities crossed my mind:
- She had insane owners, who, after spending hundreds of dollars on an Abyssinian kitten, let her go outside freely without at least a collar. But it meant I should just leave her alone.
- She had gotten out accidentally, which struck me as more likely (since I don't let my cats go outside), which meant I should take her home, and put up flyers around the neighborhood.
Heavily influenced by the fact that she was the cutest, friendliest cat ever (as shown by the fact that she started purring when I picked her up), I'm afraid I did the latter.
It was tricky getting her inside. I brought her into the front hallway, then unlocked the door. Ulysses, unfortunately, had heard my key and was waiting just inside the door. He therefore immediately came face to face with an INTRUDER CAT, which totally freaked him out and sent him zooming up the stairs with his tail poofed out.
(Ulysses, by the way, has never in his life set eyes on a cat besides his mother, his littermates, and Persephone.)
I whisked Iphigenia (the name is a family joke) up the stairs and into my downstairs bathroom. Ulysses hovered outside for quite a while:
Then I made flyers:
FOUND
SIX-MONTH-OLD ABYSSINIAN KITTEN
NO COLLAR OR TAG
VERY FRIENDLY
FOUND FRIDAY EVENING ON D ST. SE, BETWEEN 11TH AND 12TH
IF YOURS, PLEASE CALL xxx-xxx-xxxx (cell)
and put them up over a two-block radius from where I found her.
At one point, when I checked on her, she slipped out and came face to face with both of the other cats. MUCH hissing and growling from all three. I was able to wrap her up in a blanket and put her back in.
Later that evening, I corralled Persephone and Ulysses into my bedroom and let Iphigenia out of the bathroom to play (she was complaining about being locked in there):
She is a totally beautiful kitty with a silky coat. She is also incredibly affectionate, the kind of Abyssinian who climbs on your shoulder when she wants to cuddle (also, the kind, unfortunately, that bites your nose in an excess of affection...). She followed me closely as I went around the apartment. I was in love with her. I was also worried about what would happen if her owner didn't turn up. I couldn't keep her, not with two cats already. Could I find someone to take her? Would she have to go to the shelter? Although I had no doubt, if she did, she would get snapped up immediately.
But my phone rang at 9am this morning. Turns out a nice older couple down the street from me missed her coming home last night, got worried and made their own flyers this morning, and when they went out to put them up, found mine and called me right away. The husband, Francis, who came to pick her up, said Ruffie (which is her real name) has caused them no end of trouble. She has already had to be rescued four or five times out of trees. She has gotten into the neighbors' houses. She is also, of course, SUPPOSED to wear a collar but is always getting it off. She is also very friendly to everyone and escorts the children of the neighborhood going to school.
She is, in fact, a purebred Abyssinian, and most astonishingly, he told me she was two years old! She is half the size of Persephone and Ulysses (big, clunky mongrels that they are), so I just assumed she was a kitten, which was really the main factor that made me "rescue" her.
(Most breeders and shelters these days want adopters to keep their cats
inside. But when I said gently to Francis "Didn't the breeder say
anything about keeping her inside?", he gave me a blank look.)
So now I feel guilty for making them worry (although I still think they're insane for letting her go outside...). And, more importantly, am I turning into a crazy cat lady? Isn't this how it starts? Rescuing cats that need to be rescued? Next thing you know I will have twenty cats in my apartment and will be bankrupting myself to buy pet food and kitty litter...
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