MistiGris….it means Alley Cat in French. We already had two indoor cats that we rescued from the street several years earlier, before we went into the Humane Society one afternoon while wasting time on a weekend. However, we still came home with two more against my best advice.
My husband had fallen in love with a scrawny, scruffy, grey long haired, skinny, non-responsive, very sick cat who had been abandoned in an apartment with nothing but a mattress for a week. Of course, he decided we HAD to take her home and nurse her back to health, AND my husband said we HAD to take the cat beside her to “because they were touching each others paws and keeping each other company like sisters”. As she was frightened of plates, Michel (Mike) had to hand feed MistiGris for weeks and months, slowly getting his hand closer to the plate until eventually
she would eat on her own.
She was so sick that when we placed her down on the floor coincidentally facing a wall, she would just sit there wobbling for hours, staring at the wall a couple of inches in front of her. She trusted no one but him. She slept with him and watched for him while he was out. She soon became a beloved companion to our other two (now four) cats and we would come home at night to find them all curled up in a big ball snuggling together on our bed. MistiGris talked, constantly, much more than our others. She was feral in some ways, not a suitable house cat, and always stalking toys with the instinct of a wild cat to small animals. She kept the others young with her habit of sneaking up on them and play them across the house. Yet, she communicated and depended on such an expressive
relationship with her humans.
She would curl up on my husband Michel’s chest and clean him for hours(his mustache) and Michel loved her so much that he allowed her to do what she pleased. She had an attitude towards the rest of us though, especially the other females (myself included). The one thing that she used to do was leave a, shall we say, “beacon” for Mike while he was out so he would never get lost and would always find his way home to her so she would never be abandoned again.
Her beacon was to leave her scent (pee) at the door where he had left. Slowly over the years, she learned to love and trust us all and was a part of our family, however the habit she slowly grew out of never completely went away. At the end, she had stopped peeing everywhere but on our bed. We always kept our door closed but still went through many mattresses on our forgetfulness, many (all)the veterinarians solutions, none with any success.
Finally came the day when we transferred and had to rent a home that could not be destroyed by her habit. We had been looking for years for a suitable home for her. Any attempts we made resulted in the potential new human companions either returning her (as we requested if it didn’t work out), or the barns we looked at had no winter heat. As much as we knew she could survive if she had too (she had more chance than any cat I have ever seen to survive), we couldn’t bring ourselves to abandoning her to that cold lonely fate. Then one day, 7 years after she came to us, our prayers were answered. We met a women who had a heated barn for her many horses and loved cats. This was not any farmer’s barn! This was a haven for throw away animals which included daily physical affection and interaction with the horses, peacocks, and other cats who she rescued from the Humane Society. It included heat, food, affection, and the main thing she had always craved – outdoor freedom.
We could never provide her that in the big city. One cat who lived at this cat haven was named “LuckY” because the woman had rescued him right off the table before being euthanized (even though she had too many already).
We brought MistiGris out for a trial basis and we got visiting rights anytime (which we took advantage of daily, then weekly, then monthly as the year went on). She was happy there but would still come running across the fields to greet us each time we visited. Not for long though, as she always had other priorities, birds to catch, squirrels to chase, dirt to roll in, haybarns to explore. Then a year later, we moved to a big house in the country and decided we could bring her to live as an outside cat with us again.
One week prior to our move, we went to visit MistiGris and this time she didn’t come running. She had made it through the winter and all the sicknesses of some of the animals around her, without any trouble. But this time, we knew something was wrong. We visited again the next day and when the woman came to my car with tears in her eyes, I knew her fate. She had wandered up to the road – something she had never done before as she had always been terrified of traffic. But this time she did and was hit by a logging truck. We were never able to see her body and all they would say to us is that they “took care of her” which I’m sure they did well.
Our house was very empty and the other cats still have not regained the youthfulness she promoted in her play with them. But there is a good ending to this….in our new home, a visitor appeared on the back steps on Day 1 of our new home. She stayed. She looks just like MistiGris, the same breed and long hair, even the same facial expressions, except black instead of grey, and she is missing one ear.
She took an immediate liking to Michel and began following him all over the property while he worked. Finally, we realized that she did not belong to anyone else and had essentially “come with the house”. We have since taken her in but not before she had her kittens in our sheltered garage. We now have our 3 original indoor cats, two to three new outdoor cats in the sheltered garage, and a living breathing memory of our sweet MistiGris to love and cherish.
MistiGris, we know you went on to a better place because you had a mischievous but loving soul and I’m sure God had a kitty door in heaven with your name on it. We think of you often and when we speak your name, the others are still attentive and looking for you.
You are gone, but not forgotten.
~Love,
| MistiGris |
| 13, June 2002 |
| Michel & Lindsay |