Found A Kitty!

Rah and I walked the dog to the store and back today. On the way home, we came across a very pretty young cream-and-white cat sitting in somebody's yard, meowing and meowing at us. At first he hissed at the dog, but when the Captain merely whined and shuffled his feet with longing, the kitty decided he wasn't in danger, and switched over to affectionate mode.

Rah and I stopped to check him out because something seemed off about the way he was just sitting there. When the kitty stood up and hobbled over to be petted and adored, we noticed the problem right away. The little dude was missing a hind leg and had a lot of trouble moving around.

This yard is located on a very busy industrial street with active ambulance and bus traffic. Animals get struck and killed there all the time. On top of that, Mystery Kitty didn't have a collar, and there are a lot of strays in the area who live sad and short lives. I didn't want to just leave the nice little tripod cat all alone to be hit by a car or attacked by one of the various loose neighborhood dogs.

I was also fascinated, because THREE LEGGED KITTY!

So while Rah scratched the kitty's ears and accepted copious overtures of purring affection, I went up to the house to ask if he belonged to the owners.

On the porch was a little plastic cup of water, and the cut-down base of a 1-gallon milk carton. The carton was full of kibble, enough for at least ten cats to eat their fill, but it had turned to mush from recent rain and was completely covered in black flies. It was gross.

I knocked on the door, but nobody answered. They weren't home.

We stole the kitty.






It's past office hours for all the local animal control/humane society offices, but I reported him as found in case his owners ever bother looking for him. We can either call for a pickup tomorrow morning, or keep him here with his information on file.

To guard against possible feline leukemia, we've put him in Rain's old room with the door shut and all the amenities a kitty needs for a sleep-over. He seems quite happy about it all.

No matter what happens next, the sweet little fellow will be taken care of. He seems well-fed and healthy, but starved for affection. His front legs are very muscular from compensating for the missing hind leg, which is part of why he looked off when he was sitting in the yard.

I'll keep you all posted on the future of Mystery Kitty.