Lost and Found: A True Cat Story (Chapter 6)

CHAPTER 6

Sneakers

Almost six weeks from the day Sneakers got out, we got a call from Bud again. It was a Sunday morning and they had seen a black and white cat around their house as they were leaving for church. Mema and Pepaw gathered up some supplies: a bowl of food and a towel and a net to catch him with. The good news was that they did find Sneakers lying near the neighbor’s house. However, he was so weak from malnutrition that he could not walk! But he was still alive. They wrapped him up in the towel and scooted back to the house.

“He is so light!” Pepaw exclaimed. Sneakers had become a large cat weighing about twelve pounds. “It’s like picking up air,” he added with concern. Sneak had not fared well out in the open.

They took him to the garage and unwrapped the towel. Poor Sneak! He tried to walk, but was so weak he just flopped down unable to move. It broke their hearts to see him so obviously sick.

Mema immediately called the vet, but because it was a Sunday, they were not open. Their voice message gave the phone number for an Emergency Vet in Winston-Salem. They had no choice but to take him there. After this long a time, it was possible he wouldn’t last until the next day. They bundled Sneakers up and drove to the vet. Sneakers was meowing mournfully the whole time. He was obviously in distress.

The vet took Sneakers back for an exam while Mema and Pepaw waited anxiously.

“He is very sick, but to really determine what’s wrong, we’ll need to take some tests. It’ll cost about $400.00,” the vet informed them. They gave permission and waited.

The news about Sneakers was bad, but the vet felt that with care and medicine, he could make a recovery. The worst thing was that he was so malnourished and dehydrated. They weighed him and the poor kitty was only seven and ½ lbs. He had lost almost half his weight during his ordeal.

“We would like to keep Sneakers overnight because he needs to have an IV to try to keep him alive. You can pick him up tomorrow,” the vet told them.

Mema and Pepaw were relieved and yet saddened. They could only hope that Sneakers would pull through.

The next day, Monday, they picked up Sneakers, but had arranged for their own vet to take over his care so they took him there. It was extremely hard for them to leave him again, but he needed a lot of special care from professionals.

“You can come by and visit Sneakers, but we will need to keep him a few days to be sure he is stable and on the road back to health,” the nurses at the vet told them. It felt so strange to visit with their pet for a short time every day, but with each passing day, they could see progress in his condition. He began to eat a little and poop like he should.

Thursday was Thanksgiving Day and they were going to be able to take Sneakers home the Friday just after.

“He’s going to need to be contained in a safe place for a while as his condition is still delicate,” Mema said to Pepaw. They went to Wal-Mart on Thanksgiving Day, thankful that the store was open and purchased a baby play pen that would be perfect to keep Sneakers safe and contained.

On Friday, Mema and Pepaw paid the vet $200 for caring for Sneakers for four days. They dubbed him their “Six Hundred Dollar Cat” and laughed about that.  Sneakers came home and was placed in the play pen. They had medicines that they had to give him which was quite a chore. They had to get a syringe full of the liquid and squirt it in his mouth. Try to imagine this. Sneakers didn’t like it and would squirm and turn his head to avoid it. It took the both of them to administer the medicine. When Pepaw had to go on a trip, Mema did the best she could alone, trying to hold him down and squirt the medicine in his reluctant mouth. Often there was more of the liquid on the floor than in Sneakers!

Sawdust had a strange reaction to her brother being back. She wasn’t too happy about it. She approached the play pen cautiously and when she sniffed Sneakers, she gave out a hiss. Then she walked away. Mema thought that maybe she smelled all the strange odors he must have picked up from his time in the woods. Either that or she preferred to be the only cat in the house. It took her a few weeks to finally stop hissing at Sneakers. She eventually adjusted to his return.

Sneakers didn’t much like the food they were told to give him and would barely eat it, so Mema tried tuna fish from a can. He gobbled that up so that is what he got. Before he was lost, he would eat a little at a time all day, but when he got better, he ate everything he could at one time. Being without food for so long had a big impact on him. Day by day, Sneakers gained his weight back until he was his former size. Because Sneakers would eat everything in sight, they had to only put out enough food for each meal. As a result, Sawdust, who had been a little overweight, lost some of her extra pounds which was a good thing.

It was so sad to see Sneakers try to jump up on the furniture like he used to, but he was too weak for a long time and would fall back to the floor. He probably couldn’t understand why and had to be frustrated. Mema picked him up and he would stay on her lap for hours and hours at a time. He needed help getting down too. However, it was gratifying to Mema and Pepaw when the day finally came that Sneakers had recovered enough to once again be able to jump up on things by himself.

So in the end, it all worked out although Mema and Pepaw had to be extra vigilant to be sure that Sneakers would not get out ever again. They were amazed and thankful that he had been able to survive his long ordeal in the big outdoors. It was, indeed, a miracle.

Shaved Leg for IV

Lost and Found: A True Cat Story (Chapter 5)

CHAPTER 5

Sneakers

One Tuesday, when the cats were grown, Mema had to go out. Sawdust was in the house and Mema thought that Sneakers was also. However, at some time, he must have slipped into the garage unbeknownst to Mema. She, naturally, raised the garage door and drove away. She came home sometime later. She felt a certain strangeness in the house and immediately went searching for the cats.

“Hi, Sawdust. Where’s your brother? Where is he hiding?” Mema asked. She proceeded to look in the usual places Sneakers would be, but to no avail. She began to panic and just had a bad feeling. She could sense that he was not there. After a complete search, she knew he was gone. Pepaw was away on a trip, but she called him, trembling and afraid to tell him the bad news.

“Sneakers isn’t in the house anywhere. He must have gotten out! What do I do?” Mema wailed distraughtly.

“Try putting out some food and water in a bowl and leave it outside. When he gets hungry, he’ll come eat,” Pepaw suggested.

Mema tried this, day after day, but the food remained in the bowl. Pepaw arrived home that Friday from his trip. As he pulled up to the house, Mema went outside to greet him.

“Look! There he is!” Pepaw said. Sure enough, Sneakers was sitting next to their little outbuilding in the backyard.

“Hey, Sneak. Come here, buddy,” Pepaw coaxed him, but Sneakers turned and ran into the woods. They were so shocked! They immediately went searching the woods for him, but were unable to find him once again. Eventually, it got dark and they reluctantly had to give up for the night.

“At least we know he’s still alive,” Pepaw said. They had worried that Sneakers could have gotten run over by a car.

Mema made flyers about Sneakers and posted them all up and down the road. They told all their neighbors to be on the lookout for him. Mema took her flyers to all of the local vets in case someone found him and took him there. They checked with all of the local animal shelters also. They even put his photo and information on lassiecomehome.com which is a website for lost and found pets. They did everything they could think to do.

When none of these measures had results, they borrowed animal traps from Animal Control to try to trap Sneakers. They put food inside and placed them in various places hoping he would take the bait. No luck, although they caught the same white cat twice. Mema went to check the trap one day and in the dusky morning light, she thought it was Sneakers inside! Her heart soared, but as she got closer, she realized it wasn’t Sneakers at all, but a large possum staring back at her. She wisely waited for Pepaw to come home later to let it free.

Their neighbor, Bud, called one day to say that a black and white cat had been hanging around his barn. Bud had a house, barn and a large tract of land just a few houses away from theirs. Mema and Pepaw tramped down there looking, but found nothing. They later left a trap which did result in the capture of a large black and white cat. However, it wasn’t Sneakers, but another similar looking cat. They called Animal Control. A man came and took the cat away. It had no tags so they didn’t know if it belonged to anyone or not.

Weeks had passed, too many weeks. With each passing day, it became more likely that Sneakers could not survive alone outside without any means of finding food. He had absolutely no skills like a cat who had grown up outside would have. Plus, he wasn’t too smart. He didn’t even go for the food in the traps. Hope was waning that they would ever see Sneakers again.

Meanwhile, Sawdust was now the only cat in the house and she seemed to know that. She became a little more affectionate and sat on their laps more often.

Another day, Bud called again to say their cat was near his house. They raced over and searched around not seeing any sign of Sneakers. Pepaw took a flashlight and shined it in a drainage pipe that was open on both ends.

“I think I see him!” Pepaw exclaimed. “I see two eyes shining in the light.” He got down and looked inside. “It is him! I found him.”

They were so glad, but Sneakers showed no hints that he was going to budge from his hiding place. He was too far from either end for them to reach him.

“We’ll have to go back to the house to get something long to flush him out,” Pepaw said to Mema.

“Wait,” Mema said. “We should cover the ends of the pipe so he can’t escape.” But they didn’t have anything handy, so they went back to the house. They decided to call Animal Control to come help rescue Sneakers. By the time they got back to the pipe, they could no longer tell if Sneakers was inside. The man from Animal Control arrived and tried a few things that would have flushed out anything inside the pipe. No Sneakers. They realized he must have left the pipe while they were away. He was lost again. Mema and Pepaw went home very upset that they were not able to retrieve Sneakers. He was so close, and yet, so far. He had been outside for about four weeks by this time.

Lost and Found: A True Cat Story (Chapter 2)

CHAPTER 2

Sneakers

Just a short time after Sneakers arrived and before they got Sawdust, Sneakers disappeared. Mema and Pepaw missed him and began to search every room in the house. They called his name, although it was unlikely he would answer.

“Where could he be?” Mema cried, beginning to get frantic. Where could a tiny kitten get to?

They looked high and low and all around. No Sneakers. They began to become very scared for him. Mema went back to Adam’s room again, although she had already looked there a few times. She noticed a pair of Adam’s dark navy running shorts lying on the floor where he had apparently dropped them. This time, she looked closer and to her surprise, there was Sneakers, curled up on top of them, blending in so well with the dark color that he was virtually invisible!

“Pepaw!” she called out. “I found him!” He came running and they both laughed out loud at the cute sight. Sneakers looked so peaceful and cute, but safe and snoozing away, oblivious of all the excitement and worry he had caused.

Because the kittens were so tiny, at night they stayed in an extra bedroom that had a bathroom where the litter box was located. This was so they would learn where it was. While Mema and Pepaw would have liked to put them in their bed, they were afraid that they would roll onto the kittens and hurt them. When the kittens got a little bigger, they were allowed to sleep with Mema and Pepaw. It was comforting for all. However, when they grew up, they began to jump on Mema and Pepaw around 3:00 in the morning wanting to play or eat. This became very disrupting and annoying, so the cats were banished to the garage for the night and let back in the house in the morning. Mema and Pepaw were then able to get a good night’s sleep without cats waking them up.

One time, Susie had to go somewhere for a few days and the kitten she had kept was named Angel. Mema and Pepaw agreed that Angel could come to their home and visit with her siblings. It was such a joy to see those three adorable kittens all together, eating and playing.

Three Kittens

Lost and Found: A True Cat Story (Chapter 1)

Cover

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my grandchildren, Emma Jeanette Byerly and Benjamin Philip Byerly. They both love animals and I hope that they will enjoy the story of the two cats that their grandparents had for about seven years. We are the Mema and Pepaw in the story. Emma bestowed those names on us one day and we love them. Our son, Adam, is also named in this story. Being the great father that he is, I know that he will enjoy reading this story to his children until they can read it for themselves.

CHAPTER 1

Once upon a time, there was a Mommy Cat and a Daddy Cat who loved each other very much. As a result of their love, the Mommy Cat had a litter of three adorable baby kittens on May 1, 1998. One kitten was a golden tabby cat with an M design on her forehead as with all Mackerel Tabby cats. The second was also a golden tabby, but she had more white around her chest and feet. The third cat was a male Tuxedo cat. These types of cats are black with a white patch of fur on the chest, usually some white on the face and on the legs or feet. This kitten had a pattern of white that made him look like he had a milk mustache. All kittens are born with blue eyes, much like human babies, but the eye color changes as they grow.  They were all beautiful in their own way.

When the kittens were just a few days old, the Mommy Cat wandered into the street which was a very naughty thing for her to do. Unfortunately, a car came by and accidently hit the Mommy Cat who then went up to Heaven.

Her poor little kittens were left alone and could not survive without milk of some kind. Normally, the Mommy Cat feeds them her own milk. What was to become of these helpless creatures?

The lady who owned the Mommy Cat was at a terrible loss as to what to do. She missed the Mommy Cat very much, but taking care of three baby kittens was difficult. Luckily, her sister, Susie, stepped in and offered to take the babies and care for them until they were old enough to find a permanent home.

Susie loved animals and her heart went out to the kittens. Caring for them was a job that meant they had to be fed with a tiny baby bottle every few hours all day long and even in the night. She couldn’t let them starve! So she did just that, even taking them to work with her every day so she could care for them properly. Susie was very dedicated and so the kittens began to thrive and probably thought that Susie was their mother and loved her just as they would have their own Mommy Cat.

One day, Susie showed the kittens to Pepaw who worked with her. Pepaw loved animals and they loved him also. He was smitten with them all, but especially the Tuxedo kitten. He was so beautiful, tiny and sweet. He went home to tell Mema all about the kittens and expressed a desire to bring one home to keep when they were ready. He described them to Mema and she too, was fascinated and agreed that they would take the Tuxedo kitten and raise him. Mema and Pepaw had previously had cats, but they were more the kind who stayed outdoors, but that was very dangerous, so they agreed that this cat would stay in the house with them.

When the kittens were only five weeks old, they were ready to start eating solid food instead of the milk bottle. They were ready for Mema and Pepaw to bring one to their home. Just from Pepaw’s description, Mema said they should call him Sneakers because he had four white feet.

They met up with Susie and took Sneakers from her. He was so precious! They were already quite in love with him. They had bought supplies for him and he came to live at their house.

Susie still had two kittens and wanted to keep only one of them. What could she do about the other one? Mema and Pepaw decided that Sneakers needed another kitten for company and it wouldn’t be much more trouble to care for two cats than one, so they agreed to take another one of the kittens. They brought home a golden tabby. Susie kept the one that had more white than the other.

The kitten needed a name. As she was sitting on the floor, Pepaw proclaimed, “Why, she looks just like a pile of sawdust lying there!”

“Sawdust!” Mema exclaimed. “Yes, that’s a cute name. They’ll be Sawdust and Sneakers!”

So that is how Sawdust and Sneakers came to live with Mema and Pepaw.