Thursday, May 27, 2010

The Story of Lil Dude - Part One (Thursday/Friday)

It was a very cold Thursday night last February. Mr. Dizzy and I were in the living room watching TV, when he thought he heard something outside. He went to the window and looked out - - there was a tiny little black kitten. We live in a rural setting, with no neighbors, so we knew he had to have been dumped out. He was worried about it, with it being so cold outside, so he headed out to look for it. He tried coaxing it to him with food, but no luck. He tried to get ahold of it to put it inside somewhere warmer, but it was scared and got away. Finally, Mr. Dizzy couldn't take the cold any more, so he came in, got some food, and put the food outside for the poor little thing.

Next morning, the food was gone. At least we knew it got something to eat. We put out more food, and got ready to go to work. When I came home from work, the food was gone, but no sign of the poor little thing. Well, at least we knew it wasn't starving.

That evening it got very cold; in fact, the wind chill was 11 degrees. We noticed that our two cats, Carmichael and Squeak, were sitting right at the window that runs alongside the front door; they were glued to that window, and no amount of coaxing could get them away. We turned on the porch light - - and there was the tiny little black kitten, standing at the window looking in at my two cats, meowing for all it was worth. Even from the front bay windows, we could tell it was shivering and miserable. My heart just broke.

Mr. Dizzy bundled up and went outside to try to coax it again, but the minute he stepped around the corner of the house, the poor frightened little creature took off to hide. Mr. Dizzy came back inside - - and the little thing came right back to the porch.

I couldn't take much more of this - - something had to be done. So I opened up the front door, got down on my knees, and held open the storm door just a bit (well, it was COLD!)(and WINDY!). I started talking to the little kitty and trying to coax it in. It kept stepping back and forth, scared to come in, but cold and miserable. Finally, its curiosity and desire to come in and see my two cats brought it inside, and I was able to get the door shut.

Now the fun began - - it was scared to death of us, but wanted to be around my two cats, who in turn wanted NOTHING to do with the little intruder! What fun.....it would follow them around, they would hiss and run away, and it would keep on following. At one point, when it was stalking Carmichael, it sat on my foot; I took the opportunity to reach down and give it a head scritch, and it started purring - - until it realized it was a BIG OL' HUMAN doing that, and ran off.

There was no way of getting close enough to see if it was male or female.....but we could definitely see its ribs, and little spine, and that there was some definite feeding that needed to be done. Lots of it. And soon.

Finally, we were able to herd the little thing out to the garage, which is heated; we put out a litter box, some food and water, and a couple of soft old rugs. We figured it would be safe out there, and warm, and fed. It was late, and Mr. Dizzy had to go into work the following Saturday morning pretty early; we decided we would figure out what was going on once he got back home.

To be continued.....

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