Rescue Story: Mork and Mindy

November 1, 2022November 7, 2022 Bernadette

I shared my November desktop calendar today as my featured article so this post is technically a daily photo, but it’s rescue story day so I’ll share some photos of rescued cats. I make the rules here! And I’m sure no one really notices since I have so many posts.

When I introduced Simba and Midnight Louie a year ago almost to the day, I also mentioned they had other housemates who were left behind when their person died unexpectedly. And here they are! Mork and Mindy (if you remember 80s sitcoms). Their person had taken in one of our community cats and she surprised him with kittens a month later. I had thought she was a neutered male since she never looked pregnant or showed up with kittens, and could be kind of swatty, protecting her space and her food in the way a male cat would do. She was socialized but not terribly friendly, and she only showed up once a day so we also thought she had an owner. The kittens were a real surprise—the man who took her in thought she was gaining weight from living indoors and eating well, a good thing for a former community cat in February. She gave birth to five kittens, but only two survived, answering one of our questions about her. Sadly she may have had other litters but with the stress of outdoor living they didn’t survive. But little Mork and Mindy were healthy from the beginning. Losing a friend and a friend of community cats was very sad, and the situation went from bad to worse before it got better. I’m sure their person is smiling to see how happy they are with his friend Denise.

Denise and her husband adopted these two, and since they are still a little shy it was a welcome surprise they both came to sit in the basement window when I dropped Denise off on Sunday, after we’d come home from the AAFP conference. I couldn’t believe my luck and dug back into the car to get my camera.

I was lucky because these two, having only known their person for their first nine months, took quite a bit of socializing to get them to trust Denise, since she showed up there each day. They would look at me but typically hide. Now that they’ve been in Denise’s house for over a year they don’t see me that often but are at least less fearful now, and sometimes stay in the room.

But what a nice matched set, brother and sister. Mork is a big boy and takes after the cat who we presume is is father, a long-time but trap savvy tom I first saw a decade ago and named Tommy. Mindy is not quite petite, but nowhere near the size of her brother. I’m so happy that Denise was able to take them in part because of their socialization status, but also just to keep them close after all we’d gone through to get them to safety.

And then also putting on a show as we stood there and talked were Ziggy and Spider, two of the ferals Denise feeds, carefully watching us between the railing posts.

They were sure she was going to feed them right away. They are sister and brother as well, and two from the very first litter Denise found under her deck in 2015, and the first of the cats TNRd with HCMT. Ziggy, the kitty on the left has her mother’s gold eyes. You’ve probably seen Spider here a number of times because I’ve photographed him so many times, shared his photo in posts, and also used them when I write about feral cats. Before I took this photo Spider was washing his sister’s face and I tried to focus on them but the rails kept getting in the way. After I got this photo I tried to move a little to the left so that I could get a photo that included their tipped left ears, but Ziggy moved, a little concerned about me and my big black eye staring at her.

So that’s my photo and rescue story for today! I’ve been getting other stories together too, and I can’t wait to share them.

Read other stories in my Rescue Stories series.

Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit Portraits of Animals

Feline Gifts from Portraits of Animals!

I find my feline inspirations in my rescues. Here’s a trio of books of my artwork and also with some stories. Read more.

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.