When Bev Found Little Paws Just Before Thanksgiving 2010... RAMSES

Bev and I rolled into the Yokes parking lot. We got out of her truck, bough groceries. We came out and Bev was some distance behind me.

Bev, "I hear a cat."

Me: (I'm thinking how on earth can anyone hear a cat in this rain with all this traffic) "Yeah so do I, in my sleep."

Bev, "No, I'm serious."

Me: "Yeah, so am I."

So I put the groceries in the truck, I turn around when I'm done, wondering where my Fiance is and she is holding this little kitten.

Bev: "We have to take her to a vet."

Me: "You just picked up a cat that belongs to someone?"

Bev: "She was under the van."

So after much prodding, I drive us over to the vet office. They take a look at her and tell us she has fleas, ear mites, she had kittens but she is not producing milk, so she lost them. They check the eyes and mouth and immediately rush her to the back. Bev wants to go with her and they say she can't go in.

I asked them, if someone owned the cat, they told us that she's a stray. If she was owned by someone, it was a while ago.

The next two days, I would get phone calls from the vet office, (they knew us well, all of our 7 cats were registered with them). They told me she was dehydrated, that she had a blockage, had a high fever and was seriously malnourished. If we didn't bring her in, she would have died.

They asked if we wanted them to remove the blockage, I told them I had to get back with them, I then called Bev who was working and she just said, "What ever they have to do, if we can afford it, I'd like them to get it done. She has to get fixed too."

So I called the vet back, after checking finances and told them to get done whatever was needed and that she had to be fixed too, they told me, "That won't happen for at least another week. That cat you brought in is about a year old, she is in bad shape."

So, Bev and I agreed on the name for her, Little Paws. (From a poem I read to Bev that someone else wrote for a cat named Pheobe (Fee-Bee).

If Bev didn't find her, if we didn't take her to the vet, she wouldn't have made it through the winter. So little Paws became cat number 8.

One day in spring, Bev and I came home and I saw a cat limping. I couldn't tell which one, it was too far away. I ran down the hill and found it was Little Paws. It was late and all the vet officers were closed.

We took her to the emergency 24hr vet clinic and their first question was, "Did you injure your cat?"

I looked at this guy like he was nuts. I just told him, "No, that would never happen."

Her back hip was broken and needed some serious surgery. So we had it done. Little Paws stayed in the house, she was in a dog carrier. She couldn't run or jump or climb she had to be almost immobile. I would give her her medicine and it would put her to sleep. I made sure her food and water was good and cleaned the carrier.

I was adamant about following the vet orders. Bev would always ask me when she was on lunch break or when she came home, "How's Little Paws?"

After a couple of months, she was able to get out, run and play, we made sure she is an indoor cat only. She is not as fast as other cats, the back hip will never fully heal she is a very happy cat.

If Bev didn't look for that soft little meow, that little kitty never would have made it.

It took some time to figure out what happened, what we suspect is a UPS driver (that no longer works for UPS) came by stole some things when no one was home and left abruptly. Striking little Paws. The vet told us, she was in a flat out run, leg fully extended trying to get out of the way.

(That driver did get caught lifting things from another house, we found out some time later).

Little Paws is still with us, she is right now, sleeping in Bev's chair, one of her favorite spots.

She has a lot of favorite toys and she loves playing with them, one of her favorite ones is a pink fuzzy mouse, that I always have to find when she flings it somewhere and she can't get it.

When Panzer left us a year ago August, (we suspect a coyote), it was hard on Little Paws and Bev and I found we had to comfort each other as much as to comfort Little Paws. She was really devastated with the loss of her older buddy. He would always lick her head. It was really special watching them play and sleep together.

I would love to get another male Maine Coon, Siamese mix, so that she would have a friend to play with, we just don't have that kind of money right now.

So we show the love of our one indoor cat as best we can and I feel we do pretty well, especially since we know where the life she had before Bev rescued her.

Sometimes, it feels like Little Paws rescued us.

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