Thursday, March 28, 2024
adopting a kittencatsDaily Featurefamilyrescue stories

Rescue Story: No, I’ll Wait

Baby in her spot on the cat tree.
Baby in her spot on the cat tree.

They had a wonderful tabby cat named Elsa and the border collie mix Bingo, but her brothers had a number of reptiles as their own pets and the little girl wanted her own pet too. A kitty. A kitty of her own. Her mother agreed and for her eighth birthday her mother planned a visit to the Humane Society.

Her mother could picture the perfect kitten for the little girl, considering the household of pets, her brothers and the girl’s personality. But she also realized her daughter knew herself and what she liked very well, made good decisions and stayed with them, and that she understood how the shelter worked. Her daughter guided the the way around the shelter, looked in all the cages, spent some time with each of the kitties looking for the one who would go home with her. When she found the kitten with the tabby stripes and white paws and bib, she knew this was the kitty she would love forever.

There was a little bit of a problem, though. The kitten actually had a persistent upper respiratory infection that had just begun to show symptoms again, and the little tabby with the white paws had to stay at the shelter for treatment. It was apparently something pretty serious that she and her siblings had arrived with, and one of the siblings had even died of the viral infection. Serious enough that they didn’t want to risk the kitten infecting their other cat, and serious enough that the shelter felt their staff had to keep her rather than sending her home with medications and instructions.

Weeks passed and the kitten wasn’t well enough to go home. The shelter veterinarian explained she might never be free of the infection, and she couldn’t live with other cats if that was so. The veterinarian suggested the little girl start looking for another kitten just in case…

But even though she looked at a few other other kittens she knew she wasn’t going to find another one like the kitty she had chosen. She had fallen in love with this kitten and the kitten loved her, and that wasn’t going to change no matter how sick the kitten was, or how many other kittens she looked at. She would wait until her kitten was well enough to go home with her.

So the shelter gave the best care to this one kitten knowing how much she was loved. And she did recover after a few months of care, and she went home with the little girl.

~~~

Cassidy and Baby.
Cassidy and Baby.

The little girl is my great-niece Cassidy, and her mother is my niece Jennifer. The shelter is the Humane Society of Greater Savannah, a fairly large and busy open-door shelter. Cassidy’s birthday is September 5, right in the middle of kitten season. The kittens may have had pneumonia, or a form of calici virus or any number of viral infections, and knowing the fate of sickly kittens who enter an overcrowded shelter at that time of year nearly anywhere, I have to hand it to the shelter veterinarian who worked very hard to save this one kitten. I can imagine them trying to avoid breaking this little girl’s heart if her kitten didn’t recover, but understanding her resolve even though she was only eight years old.

In the end Cassidy waited a little over two months until the shelter veterinarian said the kitten had recovered and showed no symptoms for long enough that she could go home with Cassidy.

Baby tanning.
Baby tanning.

“When this came up with the kitten I wanted to go ahead and look for the kitten ‘I’ wanted for her,” Jennifer said. “And yeah, that was something I had to realize. This wasn’t ‘my’ decision. It was hers. Boys. Get these shorts. They’re $2. Ok mom. Whatever. Cass. Not so much like the boys,” she explained. “And yeah, I stepped back. And she made her choice and we dealt with the problems. And she hung in there even when the vet told me we should start looking for another kitten. I explained the situation. She looked. And said no. I’ll wait.”

Cassidy and Baby at Christmas.
Cassidy and Baby at Christmas.

I remember when they considered names for the kitten, and seeing the white paws Jennifer asked me if I minded if we called her “Bootsie”, which of course was the name of my first cat, named so because of her white paws. I didn’t mind, and kind of glad another Bootsie would have a much safer and healthier life indoors and getting regular veterinary care than my Bootsie had. But again Cass had her own ideas. She had started calling her Baby because the kitten was little and the baby of the family, and the name stayed with her. Now she’s a big Baby, but she’s still Cassidy’s Baby. Baby has never shown symptoms of the mystery viral infection again.

photo of girl and cat
Cassidy and Baby.

On Cassidy’s tenth birthday she had a party and asked everyone to bring food and toys for the cats and dogs in the Humane Society for Greater Savannah. Below is the photo of Cassidy and Baby with the donations.

Cassidy with all the loot from her 10th birthday party.
Cassidy with all the loot from her 10th birthday party.

Here’s what the guests brought:
Dog Food: 88 lbs
Cat Food: 29 lbs

5 cans cat food
22 lbs litter
pooper scooper
dog collar
dog leash
2 cat collars
brush
2 cat toys
cat play cube
and 3 cat toy balls

Not a bad haul for a bunch of fourth-graders.

Baby smiling.
Baby smiling.

Cassidy just turned 15, and while she excels at everything she does and spends lots of study time and after-school activity time, Baby and she are still as close as when Cassidy was eight.

Baby and Simon
Baby and Simon

And the arrival of two medium-sized fluffies earlier this year hasn’t changed that one bit.

Baby and Theo.
Baby and Theo.

Read more Rescue Stories.


Browse some rescued cats and kittens!

BaxterBailey-icon




Copyright

All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.


Subscribe to my e-newsletter

Subscribe to The Creative Cat Preview E-newsletter.


© 2022 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Weekly schedule of features:

Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life

Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters

Tuesday: Rescue Stories

Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork

Thursday: New Merchandise

Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy

Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats

And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!

 
PORTRAITS OF ANIMALS WEBSITE
FACEBOOK | TWITTER | LINKEDIN | PINTEREST | TUMBLR | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE| EMAIL | PATREON

HOME


Subscribe to The Creative Cat on your Kindle

Start with a 14-day free trial. You can cancel at any time during the free trial period. If you enjoy your subscription, do nothing and it will automatically continue at the regular monthly price of 99 cents. Click here to subscribe to The Creative Cat on your Kindle.


© 2015 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

—

Weekly schedule of features:
Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life
Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters
Tuesday: Rescue Stories
Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork
Thursday: New Merchandise
Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy
Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats
And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!

—

PORTRAITS OF ANIMALS WEBSITE
FACEBOOK | TWITTER | LINKEDIN | PINTEREST | TUMBLR | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | GOOGLE+ | EMAIL

HOME


Bernadette

From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

5 thoughts on “Rescue Story: No, I’ll Wait

  • I loved this Story of the Cat adopted from the Humane Society by your great niece. She also looks so pretty. God Bless her for Saving a Cat.

    Reply
  • good things come to those who wait ~~~~~~~ ♥♥♥♥♥♥ love this story ☺☺☺

    Reply
  • Random Felines

    A great adoption tale. The world needs more kids and families like this.

    Reply
    • Jeanne, I just love the story. I hope she’s setting a good example for her friends too.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this:
Verified by ExactMetrics