My Soft Spot, Part I

Over the last few days, another cat has been frequenting our back balcony (we live on the first floor.) He was very cautious at first, and would run away when we opened our back door. Kitty regarded him as an unwelcoming intruder and did her best to hiss and howl at him. Feeling strong pity for the cat and remembering how our own Kitty came to us, we decided to leave a bit of food for him outside. Blacky, as I’ll call him for now, soon came around and learned that we were friendly people. I finally got a good look at him as he was no longer running off. He’s a big and stocky black and white cat, much bigger than Kitty, with a full roundish face, small beady eyes, and a thick neck. Blacky was in poor shape. Across the back of his neck, he had a long wet-looking wound. It was not actively bleeding, but it was definitely not healing well. He also has scratches, old and new, by his ears and one eye seemed to be oozing. He was smelly and dirty. I just felt terrible for him. Blacky did not show much interest in food and he did not look like he’s starving, yet a couple of times a day he would come by and just rest on top of a box we had outside. When I opened our door, he would start meowing and circling around my legs. After a while, he would disappear. As the weather is very mild, I just left him be.

This morning around 9am, Blacky was outside again. I woke him up from his sleeping post as I opened the door. He immediately started meowing and wanted to come inside. I did not allow it, though. I don’t know how Kitty would react and I don’t know what diseases he might potentially bring to Kitty. His wound looked worse today. I quickly closed our back door and saw Blacky standing on hind legs and pawing at our door. I knew I had to do something. There were only two options: 1. Call animal control or 2. Take him to the vet myself. I liked the idea of taking him to the vet to get all fixed up, but what would I do after that? We could not keep another cat and I know from past experiences, the no-kill shelters are always full, and I’ll have to turn him over to animal control anyways. So, while I had Blacky outside (he was back to his nap again on our balcony) I called the city’s animal shelter. Somebody will be on their way, she said, but I had to keep him contained in a cage or box until they come. To my chagrin, Blacky was already gone before I had a chance to cover him with a box. So I had to call back the animal shelter and cancel the whole trip.

Paul came home around 4pm this afternoon and alerted me to the fact that Blacky is once again outside. This time, I got our long rectangular laundry basket and caged him underneath with several of my heavy textbooks. Poor cat, he was unsuspecting and trusting. The animal shelter said it could be 4-8 hours before they can come out. It’s now 4 hours later and I’m still waiting. As I sit here typing, I wonder, “is anyone coming tonight to get Blacky?” The lady on the phone this afternoon assured me they would. She also said they have nice vet techs to take care to his injury and nice facility to keep him safe. For three days, that is. Shelters are only legally bound to keep an animal for three days and around 70% of the animals there end up euthanized after that.

I questioned my decision to turn Blacky in. I was in that same dilemma last December with Kitty, except Kitty was in much better shape than Blacky and Kitty found a home with us. If I could provide a home for all stray cats, I would. I finally decided to it would be more humane for Blacky to get euthanized than keep living the sad life he’s leading as a free cat.

I will update later.