Cats Rule

For most of my life, I've had cats. And of the four cats that my parents and/or I have owned, three of them were rescued strays. And when I say rescued, I mean that literally.

My first cat was rescued, years ago, when my friend, Mike, and I were wandering through a shopping mall parking lot. As we were walking, a car drove by and, from underneath the car, a cat fell out from the engine area and had its foot run over as the car drove off. We saw all of this happen and immediately took chase to save the injured cat. For hours we would chase the cat, or more often, wait because she took to hiding inside the wheel well/engine area of various cars. So, we'd wait for the car's owner to show up, explain the situation, and then they'd pop open the hood, the cat would jump out and run off again.

Interestingly, luck/fate/spaghetti monster was on our side as, not only were we there to witness the poor cat's misfortune (and rescue her), but we also happened to stumble upon a shoe box in the parking lot, with shoes still in them (we tossed those away), giving us a container to hold the bloody, injured cat. In the end, Mike was able to get a good enough hold of her to force her into the box. We took her to the vet where she had to have some toes amputated but, otherwise, she was perfectly healthy and she lived with us for the next 15 years.

My current cat is a rescue from the harsh streets of Chicago. Not nearly as exciting a story but a friend found her wandering around a construction site. The cat was tiny, skinny and malnourished and terribly tired. So, when the cat started following our friend as she walked by, she just had to take her in. But they have a very big dog so we volunteered to keep the cat. She's been with us 6 years as of next month.

It's funny. I was just looking over some of my previous posts. There's this one, about how excited I was to go see David Sedaris. I never did follow up on that. Sadly, instead of going to the Chicago Theater to see the show, we spent the evening at the local animal emergency vet because our cat's eye had suddenly swollen shut. Was I disappointed? Sure I was. But, dammit, that's what you do for your pets when you have to.

This leads to the other post that I was re-reading. And while dogs are pretty nifty, I'm still a cat person (even when that cat is whiny and never actually wants to play. She just wants to be held. Which makes working [or video games] nearly impossible).

The point of all of this is that September is Adopt-A-Cat month for the American Humane Association. So, if you can adopt a cat, by all means, do it. And if you can't, please consider donating to the American Humane Association. Doesn't have to be much, just a few bucks - every bit helps. You can also specify that you want your donation to help animals in need - otherwise it might get spent helping stupid kids, instead*.

American Humane's Adopt-A-Cat Month®

*I can't believe I almost made it through the whole post without making some snide remark! Of course, I'm joking. They're not stupid and they can use some help too.

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