Gone to the dogs...and cats

 

I feel like we have been living a chapter  from All Creatures Great and Small around here for the past week. Not only have my life moments and activities been directed by a small dog, but we have had an ongoing saga with a neighborhood kitty.

It moved into our and our next-door neighbor's yards about a week and a half ago. It lived part-time under their deck, and when their three dachshunds drove it away, it would come into our yard. It also would lay in a space between the two yards, where none of our resident pets seemed to upset it at all. My neighbor confessed to me on about the third day of it's 'visit' to us that she had been feeding it. I had to confess back to her that I had been feeding it, as well! It was a sweet, timid little thing, and Booker would go look at it on the other side of the fence, not a foot from him, and not seem to faze it at all. But we couldn't get our hands on it. Finally on Tuesday, the neighbor decided that her dachshunds were getting too stressed by it's presence, so she got  a live trap from our vet, and we trapped it, determined to find it a home that didn't contain three dachshunds or an overly enthusiastic puppy. We went through several friends, who we thought might want it, but who all decided against it, as it is very young and not yet domesticated, though (we were sure) sweet and tame-able. The neighbor, on our vet's advise, contacted two cat rescue facilities, but both said they were full, and wouldn't take it! I would have opted for continuing to feed it, and gradually making more contact with it, until we could bring it in when the weather gets harsh, but the neighbor's dachshunds were just too obsessed with it, and Booker and Gussie were becoming a bit concentrated on it as well. So we spent the last day and a half, determined to find it a good home. I had decided that if we didn't find one by yesterday evening, I would just bring it in and deal with whatever happened. But yesterday afternoon, my neighbor's grandson's girlfriend came by and fell in love with the little thing and took it to it's new home. She (the girlfriend) lives on a small farm, and has had many cats, though she was without one right now. Lovely ending! We feel quite satisfied, in a 'James Herriot' sort of way! Bless you, neighbor's-grandson's-girlfriend! And may you have a lovely life, sweet little visitor kitty...