Zoe, a/k/a Sadie The Goat

Zoe is a sweet black and white tuxedo cat with extra toes referred to as a polydactyl cat. She has mitten paws. I love her feet and find them fascinating. When I turn one of her front paws over and look at it upside down, it reminds me of a pitcher's mitt.

I first saw Zoe drinking water from the bottom of one of the flower pots near my front porch. My first thought was I had never seen her before. Often neighbor's cats will wander in and out of our barn and in our horse fields and around the pond looking for mice.

So, I assumed that she was a new cat in the neighborhood and she had stopped to catch a drink.

In the next few days, I saw her again, and then I saw her sitting outside our barn doors. I watched from the window as she stretched, yawned, and went inside the barn.

Ah-ha. I thought this cat was a stray looking for a safe place.

I am a sucker for stray animals, and late that afternoon, I took a small bowl with dried cat food and left it toward the back of the barn.

There was evidence that this little kitty had been curled up in an old towel left laying on a tabletop and sheltered by some storage boxes.

Although I did not see her, I did hear noises as if something had hurriedly looked for a hidey-hole. I stood there for a moment and called kitty-kitty but heard no response, just silence.

The next morning and afternoon, I went back. In the morning, the food was gone. In the afternoon, I bought more food and a bowl of water.

Every time I went into the barn, I would call her and talk to her, and she started to answer. Then one day, as I wandered toward the back of the barn, I could hear her not only talking but moving toward me.

The next day she rubbed against my legs, and I was able to pick her up for the first time.

I realized she was injured on one side of her face and also her eye. It was a serious injury and I wished I had seen it sooner.

My husband and I had quite the conversation that day. We already had three cats and one dog. What should we do? Do we want another cat?

She needed medical attention. Could we afford to take her to our vet? I knew it would be expensive.

We talked about taking her to an animal shelter where we had adopted two of our cats. I was torn and didn't know what I should do. My concern was her eye. Could her eye be saved?

The next day, I called the animal shelter, and we talked about the injury. I wanted to know how high the percentage was to euthanize the cat instead of operating on the eye.

Of course, I did not receive a yes or no answer. I understood they would have to examine the eye before answering my question.

What to do, what to do? I was so concerned about this very affectionate little cat.

I made an appointment to take the cat to the shelter the next day. The animal shelter was closed during Covid, and I would have to leave the cat. No one was allowed inside the building.

We had decided to leave the cat for adoption and let the shelter examine her and hopefully repair the eye.

I did not sleep well that night.

The next day, I took the cat for a ride. It took an hour to get there, and during that time, I thought about what might happen after I left her. When we arrived, I parked and sat for a few minutes. I thought some more and watched the many other cars parked there.

I could see the people drive in, call on their cell phones, and an attendant would come out to their car and take their animals.

I took this wonderful little cat out of her carrier and she had crawled into my lap, purring and rubbing on me. She put her paws up on the edge of the window and watched all the goings-on.

I started to cry. I took out my cell phone and called the number the shelter had given me. No one answered, and I left a message saying I would not be leaving the cat. I had decided I could not give her up. I could not risk having her be euthanized.

The cat, who we would name Zoe, went home with me that day, and here she remains.

I had called our vet in the shelter's parking lot before we left and made an appointment. When I took Zoe in the first time, the vet examined her. It was doubtful medications would save her eye, but we decided to try. She was given medications, and we waited to see if they would work.

Sadly, the medicine did not solve the problem, and the vet removed the eye

We do not know how she had received the injury, but she had a jagged cut under the eyelid and around the eye socket. The eyelid was healing around the eye and closing shut over it.

The vet assured me that she would be fine. He had a cat with no eyes, and it could do everything any of his other cats did, and probably better.

We had not officially named her yet, but I liked the name Zoe. For some reason, it just fit.

I did a bit of research looking at hundreds of cat names, and on a lark, I decided to research one-eyed female pirates.

I was surprised to find a list of the top ten famous female pirates. Who knew?

You can view that list here: https://www.piratesquest.co.uk/top-10-famous-female-pirates/

Number ten on the list was Sadie the Goat. Her name was Sadie Farrell, and she was a New York gang leader and river pirate. She was a pirate on the Hudson and Harlem rivers.

I live in New York so I thought Sadie might be a good name for our little one-eyed cat.

Sadie the Goat did have both her eyes but only one ear. Someone bit off one of her ears in a fight. She wore it in a locket around her neck. Can you imagine it?

I finally decided that although the story of Sadie the Goat was interesting, and naming our little cat after this female pirate was intriguing, the name Zoe just fit so much better.

I have thought of making her an eye patch and a little pirate hat, though.

She is an affectionate little cat and fits well with our other cats and our dog.

Zoe is also fierce and made it clear when we first introduced her to her new animal family that she was small and might only have one eye but she was strong and able to take care of herself. She was not going to be intimidated.

She would have made a great pirate.