A Passel of Cats and Then Some

Oh my goodness? How many are there? There must surely be a passel of cats and then some!

The neighbor came over and actually admitted that he had been using binoculars to try to determine how many cats hang out at our place. And he wanted to know if they were all ours. We laughed. He's so silly. Anybody that's ever been around cats knows that you don't own cats. They own you!

Weirdly enough it all started on a Thursday morning several years ago as I was hurriedly trying to leave town for a girls' trip to a conference in New Orleans. There he was. A matted, bedraggled looking gray and white cat with medium length hair. He was super skinny. It broke my heart. My husband being a cat lover, I ran back inside and hurriedly told him about this poor looking cat. Having two indoor cats, and hubby's love for spoiling them with wet cat food treats, meant he was adequately prepared to come to the aid of this abandoned cat. Because surely any cat that has a home would not look so poorly.

By the time I got back four days later, this cat's name was now Earl. And not just plain Earl, he was Sir Earl of Denver because that was the name of our street and he had adopted my husband and appointed himself our Royal Groundskeeper. As Earl got healthier, he would disappear for only short periods of time. The rest of the time he laid on our porch rail and watched for intruders. And boy did he give them what for if they got anywhere near our yard, or even on our block for that matter. Sir Earl took ruling his kingdom very seriously. We, as his servants, learned he liked things right on time. Breakfast was expected at 7 a.m. on our way to work. Dinner at 5:30 p.m. when we got home from work. And eventually, he wanted in at 9:00 p.m. to lounge around and sleep through the night before he went out to wander all day after breakfast.

But about those times when he disappeared - one day we learned why. Sir Earl had a girlfriend. She was a tortie. We have never been sure how old she was but she was petite with her bony hips showing. However, her belly was big. In fact it was HUGE. She became dubbed by us as The Duchess of Denver. Yes, sadly, not knowing and understanding British titles, Sir Earl did not have a Countess -- he had a Duchess. They didn't seem to care though and neither did we.

Duchess hung out in our back yard never allowing herself to be touched and certainly never coming inside the house. (That hasn't changed in the whole six years that we have known her.) She seemed content to just have a safe place to be where food was plentiful. Sir Earl checked on her regularly. But then, one day, Duchess disappeared. Sir Earl didn't seem too concerned. He came and went doing whatever things a cat named Sir Earl does with his time.

It was a couple of weeks before we saw Duchess again. We wondered if she was around the whole time though because hubby put food out every morning and every evening and it was always gone. Finally, it became clear. She had found a safe place under our garage and birthed her kittens. Sir Earl seemed rather pleased as he stood nearby watching the kittens parade around.

These two and their litter attracted the company of other cats who also moved into our back yard. Babies grew up. Mating occurred. The Queens settled in and looked after each other's kittens. The males fought fiercely to be the main squeeze for the colony. Because a colony is what it became - a feral colony with a population of about 30 cats that ebbs and flows.

We scrambled doing trap, neuter, release to try to get on top of this. Hubby provided medical care to any that were sickly. With some, it became apparent they had never been healthy in their lives. We have unfortunately come to know a lot about FIV, FELV, URI, fading kitten syndrome and calici virus. Feral cats win the lottery on illnesses.

There was Oscar le Orange that showed up skin and bones, dripping slime from his mouth and crying pitifully. Because he was so loving, we believe he had a home at one time but got abandoned when his health went bad. Our veterinarian guessed him to be maybe 6 years old so he has a lot of years to live yet. Cancer was ruled out and a diagnosis of stomatitus was given. With some antibiotics, steroids and removal of all his teeth, he became a healthy, loving cat.

Jet is another heartwarming story. Blind and frightened at weaning age. His eye sockets were red rimmed and crusty. He had an infection that had welded his eyes shut as they tried to heal. The veterinarian said he would never see. But they didn't know Jet. Somehow one eye had a tiny opening and from that peep hole Jet learned to view his world. I noticed one day that he could follow my hand movement. Certain now he had vision, several surgeries later and he became a fully sighted cat. He was thrilled with his new view of the world. He became so close to us during his convalescence that he became a permanent fixture in our home. He darts into the bedroom every morning to give my hubby a wakeup call. Hubby was the first human he knew in his blindness. And hubby took care of him through it all.

Monotony is not a thriving commodity at our house. As our rescues grew, the need for a catio for the indoor cats was dire. It's been one of the best investments we ever made. Out they gallop through a window every morning onto a screened porch. Then up a ladder and out the cat door to the sky walk. And finally, down a ramp into the catio. A sun shade on the top shields them and shelves allow them various perches when lying on the warm ground doesn't appeal. But their favorite place of all seems to be in the skywalk where they languish up on high taking in the fresh air.

After six years there has been so many cats come and go and so many stories it's hard to tell them all. After three years of looking after us, Sir Earl moved on and adopted a family down the block from us. Duchess still pops up now and then to birth under our garage. We see others we have cared for lounging on porches throughout the neighborhood. Sassy Cats Sanctuary grew out of hubby's love and desire to help the tossed, lost, abandoned, forgotten and neglected cats of which there are far too many in the world. Sadly, he cannot take them all into our home as personal pets but he does provide medical aid to those in desperate need and he practices TNR so that the numbers of these poor souls don't multiply and add more lives to this plight. And ever and always, ANY and ALL hungry strays find a meal at Sassy Cats Sanctuary.

And so, at a small cottage on Denver, this was how there came to be a passel of cats and then some. We feel very fortunate to be able to tend the misfortunate. But always remember, a kitty at play keeps the monotony away.