One day before going to work I decided to walk to the subway and take a different route. As I was walking I saw this kitten delightfully rolling her body on the tar in the middle of an avenue. My heart gasped, “oh my God, the kitten is going to be killed.” I stood there stupified and before I could do anything, a car rolled over her, the kitten was still, almost dead like. Thereafter two cars rolled over it, my head was down I was afraid to look up, then the fourth car stopped and picked the kitten up and brought her to the curb. I was hardly able to speak and I opened my eyes and looked at her, I thought she would be smashed to smithereens, but there she layed, still and dazed.
I said to myself what’s going to happen to this kitten. When she comes out of it, who is going to take care of it. I said, “what the hell, I’ll take it home, take care of her and try to get it a home.” I called my job and actually told them the truth, that I would get
there by noon.
I wasn’t able to take the kitten to the doctor right away because I had to get to work, I put her in a carrier outside my apartment to protect my two cats inside from getting a possible infection. In the evening, my neighbor discovered that she was a girl and we fed her milk from a baby bottle outside in the hallway. My neighbor said, “she sure is a strange looking cat, she doesn’t even look like a cat, she looks like the Taco dog on television, like a small runt with huge ears. She was mostly white with a few black small circles with a black tail. The next day I took her to the doctor, they gave her the necessary shots and
I brought her home.
I was so afraid of leaving her out of the box because my two older cats might harm her. Well finally I let her out and held my breath worrying that there would be chaos. Well it turned out that it was Taco Bell that I had to watch out for, First, she made herself appear to be tall by stretching her body as much as she could. She sized up the other cats personalities and took over completely. By the next two days she had my oldest cat completely traumatized, the other one, Sadie gave her the business when the kitten got really bad and then walked away from her hoping the kitten wouldn’t bother her again. In the meantime I kept thinking of where I could find her a home and then a little later on I would say if I got her a home, it would have to be close by so I could go see her. It was around this time I got a real good look at her.
She blossomed, with her hair fluffy and her black tail upright. She had black marble eyes at night and yellow during the day. The doctor said she has a little persian in her. Then, as you can imagine, I said, “oh what the hell, I am going to keep her.” I had no idea of what laid ahead.
We named her Lucky, I guess because she survived such an ordeal. Around this time I was getting to know her a little. She was growing and you could see she was going to be low to the ground and very long and very little. She was beginning to appear sphinx like and you couldn’t help but be charmed by her, she was very friendly with everyone.
She became possessive of me, not because of affection, but because of territorial reasons, she didn’t want to share me with the other cats and would chase the other two away from my bed at night. When I was home, I spent my time stopping them all from hissing at each other. Lucky had certain habits, like after breakfast she would go to the living room and stare at the plants and outside the windows.
When she ate, she first ate a little dry food and then wet food from the can, you know how humans first they eat their meat and then their vegetables and go back again. Unlike the other cats she chose the most likely window with a small porch like sill and sat there on sunny days. She would jump up on the blinds gesturing me to open up her window, so she could look out.
After about two years I noticed that Lucky’s tongue was hanging a little and that she didn’t look too good. It went away, but came back again. One night she looked like she was about to go into a coma. I took her to the animal emergency hospital. They said they thought she had a neurological problem. I took her to a neurologist and they put her on different food. She seemed to get better, but it happened again.
I took her to Humane Society, the doctor there gave her an ultra sound exam. When he came to me, he looked downhearted and said, “this cat has severe problems since birth, it looks like she might have cancer of the liver. I could be wrong but you should just take her home and by some miracle she might survive.” The doctor also said that he didn’t think that she should undergo biopsy because of her size, (very small, 4lbs.) and then they might put her on steroids, he felt she shouldn’t be put through all of that.
My oldest cat, Sheena who was 17 years old died and shortly after that Sadie who was eleven years old died of Pancreas Cancer and had to be put to sleep. I could tell Lucky missed them because every time I would enter the apartment she would come running to greet me, she never did that before. Lucky had her good moments and her bad. She would spend a few weeks having a good time and then the symptoms would appear again. Sometimes I was hopeful that she would survive her dilemma. By now I loved her very much. I had so much respect for that huge spirit in that little body. When she was well she would scratch the floor with happiness and go on with her happy day. She was always by my side. She died when she was three.
People say why don’t you get another cat. I say I miss my cats too much right now, maybe later on, much later on. And Lucky, do I especially miss Lucky, yes I do. She had but a short time to live and fate gave her to me for that time. You could call me Lucky too.
With Love and Affection,
| Lucky |
| Catherine Hoeg |