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Here at our family’s animal shelter, we occasionally have to do a rescue mission.  Most usually this involves cats.  For some reason, cats seem to be considered the most expendable and least valued animals by far too many people.  I’ve even heard people make the ignorant, heartless statement that “A cat can catch its living”.  That’s not true.  A great deal of the time, unless a homeless cat gets rescued, they will starve to death.  A few months ago, on the way home from a supply trip, we found a grown cat some monster obviously had dumped, so hungry it was trying to scrape filthy roadkill off the pavement, and it was chasing and devouring any insect it found.  When we went to get the cat, he was so weak he laid down on the ground in exhaustion.  At our shelter, the cat, now named Hawk, recovered well and is fat, fed and happy.

We just completed another successful rescue mission last night.  My elderly aunt and uncle, who live about 80 miles from us, are now quite unwell and are having great difficulty caring for their few animals.  They have a big dog that positively HATES cats and kills every one she can.  A little stray cat appeared at my aunt and uncle’s place, somehow managing to dodge and survive the dog, snatching whatever scraps my aunt tossed to it, then running for its life before the dog appeared.

Now that’s bad enough, but the cat soon started looking pregnant, and soon had kittens somewhere in the giant barn on the property.  The cat still managed to avoid the dog, and as the weeks passed, was observed running off with whatever food she could get, taking it to her babies.

My aunt and uncle are simply too disabled to go out to the barn and feed the cats.  A friend who helps with cleaning and chores went and discovered three baby kittens in the barn, and when the friend was present, took a bowl of milk to the barn to the now wild kittens.  Always the milk disappeared from the bowl.