We rescued a kitty! Or did we?

AlaItalia’s post in a pit thread reminded me of something that I had been meaning to post about. While we were driving out to Illinois on vacation last month this kitten (about a three months old) ran under our car while we were shopping at a rural Maryland convenience store. Fortunately for the kitten Angie noticed her in time and brought her into the store to inquire as to the identity of the owner, the employees didn’t know and thought someone may have just dropped her off there along with a piece of chicken to eat. Angie and I discussed the kitten situation and we decided to take her along, being with us would certainly be better than the alternative. After all, we already had kitten food and kitty litter for our ferret, and the ferret’s ball made for a good temporary travel container. At first I thought of taking the kitten all the way to my sister’s house in Illinois but then it occurred to me that having two pets might be a problem when we stop for the night. I suggested finding an animal shelter in the next city we came across (Morgantown, WV) but Angie had another idea. While I used the facilities in a WV rest area, Angie brought the kitten to the information desk there. A teenage girl appeared to have adopted the kitten before left but I don’t exactly know what happened. We saw the girl’s family again before we left and there were no obvious signs of a kitten being with them.

I’m sure someone’s looking after it - a girl wouldn’t offer to take the cat and drop it by the side of the rest stop (I hope) without someone noticing it again.

You did the right thing, I think. I wish I could help every cat I saw - but as my mother tells me, I can’t save them all :frowning:

I’m trying to save every cat I can. Seven, at the latest census. And one dog.

The poor man who owned the house next door was murdered a few months before we bought our current house. :frowning: There are a ton of cats loose in our neighborhood but only one ever comes to our backyard, and she (I’m assuming here) looks much more haggard and unkempt than the others, and is skittish and suspicious of us, whereas the ones we run into on the sidewalks nearby are unilaterally friendly.

So we think the cat either belonged to him or to the woman who was his tenant (and who was subsequently arrested). She has a collar, but we haven’t been able to get close enough to see what kind of info is on it. Though we are hesitant to “adopt” a cat that already has a home, it scarfed down the food and water that we left for it two nights ago, so we think there’s something going on.

Needless to say, our two family (indoor) cats aren’t quite sure what to make of this development. They’re often the first to see her through the window, but we aren’t sure if they’re fascinated by Another or are jealous that we’re giving her a tiny fraction of our time away that could be better spent on them.

We’ll proceed with care (she came closer yesterday), but will only be leaving food out for her when we see her since there’s so much we still don’t know.

Well, that was one from the archives all right, ArchiveGuy. :eek:

Hmm. I didn’t even notice the date–this thread was linked from another currently active one, so I just posted. :cool: