A Sad Tale

A cat started hanging around our house this weekend. Len had seen it before at the house across the street, the owners of the house (who rent the house out, but are often there because they keep horses) said they were feeding the cat, but it was otherwise homeless. On Saturday, it came to us. We think new tenants moved in with some intimidating dogs, and the cat decided to find new digs.

The poor thing was in very bad shape. The cat was starving, had some sort of abscess on its face, nad something gross on its neck (probably a tick, it disappeared at some point), but it was very friendly and needing love in the worst possible way. And he certainly knew a couple of suckers when he sniffed us out. Len immediately named the cat "Gary" (despite not knowing the creature's gender). We set out food and water, Len made a bed in the garage. You know this can only end badly.

We have four cats, and have a hard enough time dealing with them (especially since Judy and Fred still want to kill each other), so there is no way we have the resources, financially or otherwise, to cope with another. I thought our friend Hal might be willing to take the cat, if we helped offset the vet bills. I also thought I would check with the Humane Society to see if they had any suggestions -- they do not appear to be set up to deal with homeless cats (they deal with adoptions and have a feral cat spay/neuter program), but I thought they might have some ideas of what to do about a rescue. I sent an e-mail since they are closed on Mondays, and figured I would call our vet on Tuesday (today).

Some time after sending the e-mail, I went outside, and found Len walking back from the road with a dead animal. I was hoping it was a small raccoon, but it was Gary. We only knew him for a couple of days, but he was such a sweet, pathetic sad guy, we can't help but be a little heartbroken. If nothing else, I hope we made his last few days a little more comfortable.