My Second Furry Baby

I never planned on getting a second cat, it kind of just happened and I went with fate. On a sunny fall day my girlfriends and I went on a tour of things that we love about Pittsburgh because one of my girlfriends were leaving. It was a celebration of the city and all that she loved. One of our stops was the Humane Society downtown we went to play with the puppies and give a set of lonely dogs a walk. I was in the cat area where I loved to be and as I walked by the cages petting and talking to those that I passed I paused at the back cage where a wheezing cat was hiding in a brown paper bag in the back of his crate.

I saw from his chart that he was older a 3 year old and that he had been there for a while which in a pound this crowded is not a great thing. I teased and cajoled him to let me pet him and spent the next 20 minutes getting him to purr and tilt his head for an exceptionally itchy spot for me to scratch. That is when the door opened and in walked a two women. I listened to their conversation because there was nothing to prevent me from hearing it. The first woman was obviously teaching the other the ropes of the place. She talked about cleaning schedules, feeding schedules and as she droned on I felt my attention reabsorbed by the sick kitty in the cage I was petting. But a few minutes later my attention was zapped back to the two woman who were discussing the saddest part of the day, getting the cats ready to be euthanized and they listed the cat I was petting as the one who was going to be put under today.

I did not even think about the how, why or what, I told those women I was adopting this cat and marched over to the counter. After filling out the paperwork I took home my little bundle of sick joy and spent the next three weeks, along with my roommates and a 500.00 vet stay trying to keep him alive. I took him to the vet where he was injected with water because he was so dehydrated, we force feed him food, we force feed him tiny pills he hated four times a day, he hid for the first few months in my room and it took us dragging him out for his feedings and pills to realized that months later he was getting better.

Those first few months were terrible, I rarely like to think of those days, but that untrusting black cat so matted with dirt and sick turned out to be the most loveable sweet shining silver tabby that ever lived and I am so grateful that compassion ruled my heart that day and I took him home.