Lady Cat Lady

One could say I was “destined” to become a Cat Lady, not that I actually believe in destiny. LOL. I see it more like being shaped by past actions, choices and circumstances. When I was a youngster, our cat gave birth to her kittens in my bed while I was sleeping. While I truly adore all animals (except snakes, I just can’t. Nope.), I can’t remember not being drawn to cats.

It’s their nature that appeals to me. Their free spirited, inquisitive nature paired with their aloof love attachment style matches mine. Don’t ever think you can control me or what I do with my body; love to learn to do new things on a whim; and pay attention to me when I want you to, then leave me alone sums me up nicely. 

Additionally, once I became an adult, I can’t ever remember a time when I didn’t feed the stray cats in the neighborhood. They need someone to care for them, it makes me feel good to be that person for them. This is not to mention, Nick, my partner, has said the same thing to me about himself. Both of us have a certain affinity for cats.

But Deb, you ask, we get that, how did this whole cat sanctuary bit begin?

I love to joke around and call it, “My consequences of Covid”. Frankly, though, it began in 2018, after Nick’s cat died. There was a particular stray that allowed me to pet him and rubbed up against my leg anytime I was outside, I called him Goldie. He was an orange tabby.  He never came into the house, but when I was outside he was around me. I started leaving food out for him.

One day, a friend of mine told me they found a cat outside of a Chinese food restaurant who followed them to their car, and asked if I wanted to take her. I said yes. That is Wonton. We call her “the queen”. Oh yes, there is a hierarchy among the cats. In fact, we’ve made it a cat monarchy. The Kingdom of Catlandia. Bwahahaha.

In January of 2020, a mother cat and her two kittens showed up at my front door. Aretha (because she’s a diva), Bonnie and Clyde. We called them that because they stole our hearts. We took them in and started feeding them; took them to the vet and had them spayed/neutered; and they became ours.

Then, Covid hit. There seemed to be more cats showing up at my house every day. It was like the cat grapevine sent out a message that the suckers lived here. Bwahahaha. It turned out the lady down the street had a bunch of cats and when Covid hit, she could no longer feed them and let them out into the world on their own. 

Everything was shut down, we couldn’t take any of them to be fixed. We just kept feeding them, and handling the consequences of our actions. Once things started opening back up, we started making appointments with the local non profit who does it at a discounted rate. Then, it burned down in a tragic fire killing hundreds of animals. We were devastated when we heard.

It took some time, but we finally found and partnered with a different program and started getting them fixed. Frankly, there are cats we still haven’t been able to catch with cages. We do what we can, but some of them won’t go in there and some of the other fools get caught over and over again even though they’re already fixed. It’s freaking ridiculous and cracks me up every time.

We are doing what we can to control the cat population in the area while continuing to feed the ones who choose to stick around after they’ve been fixed.  Some, we never see again, but many figure out they can get a free meal and keep coming back for more. 

We’ll continue to neuter/spay the ones we can catch, and take care of the ones who show up as long as we’re able and  alive because that’s who we are.