Two Girls on the Run

Have I mentioned that I love cats? I will admit that my home is filled to the brim with cats at the moment (6 cats and 3 kittens who are almost full-grown). I promise not to descend into a crazy cat lady blogger, but I must tell the tale of two girls on the run and how they turned my home upside down.

In late July, I saw dilute calico cat in our yard. My Mom, who was gardening in my yard (yes, I was being lazy, and Mom was helping), talked to the cat, and they carried on a conversation. Cat lovers know what this means; you talk to the cat, and the cat chirps, trills, and meows in response. I sat down in the grass and talked to the cat. She wandered near me but not near enough to touch me. Mom encouraged me to give her a can of food. I grabbed a can of my elderly cat’s crack (Fancy Feast), and put it on a plate in front of the cat. The cat timidly walked up to the plate, took one sniff, and devoured it all. I gave her another can, and she devoured that one. She appeared to be thin and unkempt. She was young, not even a year old. I could tell she had fleas and ear mites, but she wouldn’t let me touch or hold her. My Mom tried to get me to take her in as my own, but my husband stood his ground, saying that if the cat came back we’d consider taking her in.

For the next several weeks, we looked for her, but we didn’t see her anywhere. One morning we caught a glimpse of her running through our back field. A week or two later, my Dad mistook her for his own calico cat who shoots out the back door every chance she gets even though she is supposed to be an indoor-only cat. He chased her around only to return to his home feeling defeated and finding his own cat hanging out in the house.

On a Saturday evening about a month after the initial meeting, we were entertaining my brother-in-law and his girlfriend. I looked out onto the back patio to see the girlfriend holding the dilute calico cat. I went outside, and the girlfriend said that the cat was homeless. The cat appeared even more thin with fleas jumping out of her fur and all over the place. I could tell the cat’s ears bothered her by the way she held and shook her head. I don’t go back on my promises. I gathered up the cat and put her on our screened-in porch with food, water, and a litter box. I planned to take her to the vet on Monday to have her checked out prior to bringing her into my home.

Throughout the night on Saturday, we checked in on the cat. She rested comfortably on the couch. She seemed completely at ease.

The next morning, my husband got up at 10 a.m. and checked on the cat. She was hanging out on the porch as peacefully as she did the prior night. He did not go out and sit with her. He wanted to wait until I got up.

When I got up at noon (I’m not ashamed to admit it!), we went onto the porch to find she had torn a small hole in the screen and escaped! We looked all over the yard but couldn’t find her. I was heartbroken, but I consoled myself that I had four, very happy and well-adjusted (at least to each other) cats.

That night I walked down the stairs to make dinner. I looked out the window, and there she was! I opened the door, and she ran to me. I scooped her up in my arms and carried her to the bathroom. I set up her litter box, food, water, and kitty bed and made plans to take her to the vet the next morning.

On the way to work, we dropped the kitty off at the vet. We got the call later in the afternoon that she was FIV and FeLV negative. The vet noted that she had two different kinds of worms, causing her body to be thin with a little pot belly. She was malnourished (obviously), and she had an eye infection and a bad case of fleas as well as ear mites. We had her scanned for a microchip, which she did not have, and the vet put her age near 1 year old though we speculated that she’s younger. The cat had not been spayed, but the vet wanted to wait until the cat gained weight and recovered from her other ailments.

Once we got the cat home, we put her in an upstairs bedroom so that she could start acclimating to our house. My Mom came over to visit and mentioned concerns about a small area near the window air-conditioning unit. She suggested that I stuff something in the small hole. I looked at her and exclaimed that the cat could not fit out that window! Mom reminded me that the cat slipped out of a small hole in the screen. Still, I scoffed at her but agreed to address the hole later.

About an hour later, I went downstairs and looked out the back window. I saw the cat in my backyard. I was amazed. I opened the back door, and the cat turned around and looked at me. It was the cat that we originally met, not the one we just took into our home. We had an imposter upstairs!

I called my Mom and told her, “There’s another one.” Mom asked what I meant, and I responded that I meant exactly what I said. Mom came over to the house, and we sat on the back steps talking to the cat. This cat, who was thin the prior month, sported a big pregnant belly. Beyond the belly, you could feel all her bones. The kittens were consuming all her nutrition. She was a little shy but extremely hungry. Fleas crawled all over her, and I could tell she had ear mites. We speculated that the two cats were sisters. They looked like bookends. We toyed with the thought of letting her be an outdoor mama, but I hated the idea of country mouse/city mouse. After all, why should one sister lead the good life in a cozy home while the other lived on scraps?

Again, I keep my promises. I gathered up the cat and took her into the downstairs bathroom to await her vet visit. In the meantime, we thought we’d introduce the other new cat. When we put them in a room together, they started trilling and bathing each other. These cats knew each other. They had to be sisters! Of course, once I saw them side by side, I also wondered how I could have mistaken one for the other.

Though I started the evening thinking about calling the one cat Brunhild or Sookie Stackhouse (I wanted something spunky and fairy-like), I ended the evening calling the two cats Thelma and Louise. Though Thelma and Louise were not sisters in the movie, I felt that the names were appropriate for two girls on the run. Thelma is the one with the wild, disheveled appearance, longer hair, and amazing escape techniques. Louise is the neat and tidy one who is a bit uptight (and pregnant).

On that first night, we found Louise hanging from the top of the window trying to break free of the house. She was terrified of everything indoors. We don’t think she had ever been in a home. Thelma’s presence calmed her.

Fortunately, everything at the vet checked out for Louise, and we brought her home to the same room where we put Thelma. I was afraid to look out the window in case a third one showed up. Our indoor cat population blossomed from four to six with more on the way.

Doesn’t Thelma look relieved to be in a comfortable home?

In the weeks that followed, Louise delivered three healthy kittens (two tortoiseshell kittens and one black kitten). We named them Sookie, Shady Lady, and Merlin. Though we considered finding homes for two kittens, we decided to keep all three. We now have nine, indoor-only cats, and I do not shy away from calling myself a crazy cat lady. I wear the title with pride. I love all my kitties, and I thank those two girls on the run for turning my house upside down and making my heart a little bigger.

Three kittens: Merlin (left), Sookie (top), and Shady Lady (right)

A family photo: left to right – Mama Louise, Aunt Thelma, Sookie, Merlin, and Shady Lady. Not pictured – The originals: Kip, Krishna, Pickles, and Yoshi

Thelma and Louise are poster children for what happens with unaltered free-roaming cats. Neither one of them had any sort of veterinary care. We later discovered that people in the neighborhood behind our house had been putting out food for them but that they didn’t appear to live anywhere. They were skinny, and I’m talking counting ribs and vertebrae skinny. They both showed heavy flea and ear mite infestations. Plus, they both had internal parasites (tapeworm and roundworm). Thelma’s diagnosis of an eye infection ended up being Horner’s Syndrome which is a paralyzed facial nerve that affects her eye. Her severe ear mite infestation damaged the facial nerve that runs through the inner ear area, causing Horner’s Syndrome. It has been almost a year since we got Thelma, and she still cannot shut her eyelid entirely (thank heavens cats have third eyelids!). When we got Louise, she weighed 6 pounds and was three weeks away from delivering her kittens. That is how emaciated Louise was. Thelma weighed 6 pounds as well, but she had a much larger frame. Fortunately Thelma was not pregnant. Her malnutrition probably prevented her from going into heat.