I got a call from a lady who asked if I could take in 4 kittens. It was only 1/2 hour drive to her place so I figured I'd pick up the cats and have plenty of time to get them settled in before evening.
On the way to pick up the cats, the air conditioning in my van seemed to be barely blowing out semi- cool air but, it was only a half hour drive.
I got lost on the way to pick up the cats and when I called for better directions the "cat lady" sounded like she was speed talking and didn't seem to know where she lived to boot. Hmmm...maybe she was on some kind of medication. Any ways, the 1/2 hour drive took almost 1-1/2 hours.
I finally got to her place and she showed me her cat "collection". Now, I am not one to say you can ever have too many cats and I am a bit of a collector too, I suppose. But this woman lived in a trailer park where you are allowed to have only 2 cats and she clearly had 20+ cats. "I planted all these bushes so my cats are hidden from the other residents. No one knows how many cats I have for sure". OK! Her neighbors must be blind because I could see them all. Many were black and white and did not exactly blend in with the bushes.
Whatever the case, I wanted to get the kittens and run but she had to show me all her cats, her cat toys, beds, etc. "I have 6, 6-week-old kittens and their mom but you can only have 4 kittens, my daughter wants the mom and 2 of the kittens." Whatever. I was fine with that. "Could you take an adult cat too? I have a female cat, Sassy, that is already spayed and is a very sweet girl." Whatever again. And we went outside to find one of the camouflaged by bushes black and white cats.
"Sassy" was indeed camouflaged. Actually, she was so camouflaged she was outright invisible. By now it was 90 degrees with 1,000% humidity and we were both crawling around in the bushes trying to find this wonderful, sweet, invisible cat. Am I on Candid Camera? No! Are you sure?
I finally said I had to go, packed up the kittens in a carrier, and almost got out of the driveway before Sassy appeared. Yay! I think. I put Sassy in another carrier and got the heck out of Dodge.
I only got lost 3 times before I found the freeway and headed for home. I had 1/3 tank of gas, plenty to get home, until the traffic stopped a mile up the road. Dead stop. No cars moving. No exits for miles. No air conditioning. 5 hot cats in a very hot van. Did I mention the kittens were very sick with upper respiratory infections and had trouble breathing before they were put in carriers and placed in a van with no working air conditioning?
Uh oh, the kittens were starting to open mouth breathe and panting they were so hot. Not good.
I alternately watched the kittens (in a carrier in the front seat), the adult cat (in a carrier in the back of the van), my gas gauge (which seemed to inch closer to empty before my eyes) and the stopped traffic. This is not good, something is going to die: my van, the kittens or a cat. Maybe me. This was not the best situation for someone with asthma.
"Dear Lord, please don't let anyone or anything die. I am trying to rescue cats, not kill them in the process of helping them."
The traffic started to inch forward causing a slight "breeze" (I use that term so very loosely). I knew I had to do something about these open mouth breathing kittens but was in the far left lane and no one would let me over to the side of the road. So, I opened their carrier and took out each kitten, one by one, and held the sweet babies up to the window to get some air. Hot, humid air, but moving air at least.
Each time I opened the carrier all the kittens tried to bail out. I had to push the kittens back in the carrier, grab just one, and hold it up to the window without dropping the little terrified wiggling ball of fur with needle sharp claws. Over and over again I repeated the process: open carrier, push kittens back in, grab just one, hold kitten up to the window--don't drop the kitten!!!
I am normally a very cautious driver and take driving very seriously. For me to continually take my eyes off the road (especially in bumper to bumper slow moving traffic) was a total act of faith. But all I could think of was getting those little ones to safety and I was going to do everything in my power to get them all safely home.
What should have been a 1/2 hour drive took almost 2 hours that day, but we got home. Safely. No one died. In fact, after all was said and done no one looked any worse for the wear. Well, maybe I did but that didn't matter.
The kittens are all happy, healthy (now) and a joy to have on our farm. I hope to adopt them out but maybe, just maybe, I won't try too hard to place these 4 kittens in another home. We went through quite an ordeal together and I learned yet another valuable life lesson the day I "rescued" those kittens.
I 'm sure you've all seen the bumper sticker that reads, "God Is My Co-Pilot". Maybe you even rolled your eyes when you read it. Well, I think, after my rescue-the-kittens-day I could have a bumper sticker made that says, "God is my Pilot".
The funny sad thing about it is that it took 4 little sick kittens to make me realize again that I truly was not the rescuer that day (and so very many other days). God was!
Shepherdess Blog
Copyright November 2011
Jackie Deems
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