A Christmas Tale

“I love it when a plan comes together.”  The signature line of Hannibal Smith from the old TV Show “The A-Team” has always been one of my favorite lines.  It’s thrilling to put together a plan that works, and even nicer when it works because of great communication among like-minded volunteers.

Two really nice plans came together this past week, the kind that make for warm-the-heart holiday stories.  So I want to share them with anyone stumbling across my blog.

Moonlight

First is the tale of the night sky kitties, Moonlight and Midnight.  I found these girls hiding on top of each other in the dark recesses of the small center section of their cage meant for only the litter pan.  It was late in the day and I was tired so I thought I would just take a few cage photos, enough to get them posted to the website before Christmas when we sometimes have a lot of customers.

Midnight

But something wasn’t right about Moonlight.  She was a silver grey, but her coat was dull and scruffy with lots of dandruff.  Worst of all, her third eyelids were up and she didn’t want to look up at me or at the camera – not unusual for kitties getting conjunctivitis.  They don’t like to look towards any light.  Luckily right then one of the shelter vets appeared to check on the cats who had been reported as coming down with kitty colds.  I mentioned to him that Moonlight didn’t look well and he said “Oh, that’s the kitty that’s almost blind!” (which explained why her third eyelids were up) and to one of the kennel workers who happened to be there he said “Let’s move her to a separate cage and watch her to make sure she’s finding her food and eating.”

Is this a good place to hide?

As much as I hated to see her separated from her sister, I know that sometimes cats will take advantage of a cat with a handicap, and owners don’t always see it happening.  So into another cage Moonlight went and when I put a plate of canned food in front of her, she practically inhaled it.   Hmmm, interesting.

Then a couple days later I discovered by looking at the website that Moonlight had been taken to a Petco – without her sister!  Oh No!! Imagine, being homeless, blind, and totally alone!  I was devastated!  How did that happen?  Doesn’t matter – just get it corrected was all I could think, and emails started to fly.

OK – we’ll send Midnight to the store, says the shelter.   But, whoops, Midnight is getting upper respiratory and will go to isolation.  Enter the volunteer/staff member who is helping out with the foster program while our foster coordinator is on a short leave.  Moonlight is also sick, she says, and the counselor there is bringing her back to the shelter.  Can you find them a foster, I ask.  Oh yes, she says, they’re coming home with me for now and I will find them a home together.  They won’t be separated again.

Happy New Year, night sky kitties!  I’ll keep you posted.  Meanwhile, if anyone reading this blog is interested in giving these girls a forever home, let us know.

Since this post is getting long, I’ll save the next story for tomorrow night.  It’s an “extra large” tale.  Don’t miss it!