Paris's Story

My neighborhood has a number of indoor/outdoor cats and strays, unfortunately. It has also been the site of cat “dumping” in the past. My family and a few neighbors regularly leave out food, water, and even little shelters for the local cat community. In December, we noticed a couple of new cats in the rotation. They often seemed to visit around the same times, and they looked similar - one had a collar on, and one did not. The one with the collar was female - and she would come by every few days. The one without the collar was male, and he just stuck around. Eventually, he followed us into the house, and we let him stay as it was getting cold outside. We really had little room left, but we’d figure it out. I also began to post on local community groups about the female - asking whoever she belonged to, to please keep her inside. She is small, and it is cold. There have also been regular coyote sightings in the neighborhood.

After a few days, no one claimed her - but neighbors were claiming to be on her feeding route. I also noticed she was starting to stay under our house pretty regularly. She was never claimed and she was hungry, cold, scared - and now I realized that maybe we took in her only companion/bodyguard - maybe brother? She hadn’t tried to come in like he did, and she had the collar, but it now dawned on me that she was most likely another of the many dumped cats that keep appearing here - all seem to have a similar look. In fact, we took in a very similar female two years ago who was dumped… and she was pregnant. As all of this started sinking in, my neighbor advised me that this little lady was in heat, and the local male cats were absolutely all over her - morning, noon, and night.

I reached out to so many shelters, rescues, etc. - at least 28! Most did not reply to me at all. Those that did, said they couldn’t help, or that they would instruct me on how to TNR only. That was not the goal at this point. One person actually emailed me back & said “in Polk County, the only resource available to cats is euthanasia.” Obviously THAT was certainly not an acceptable option. This little sweetheart, and her possible babies, needed and deserved to be saved and loved. Just as I was losing track of the sleepless nights with a very broken heart, I found Jean.

I still feel guilty that I didn’t personally bring this sweet girl in myself, sooner. Though she’s not the only cat roaming my neighborhood, she was always just a bit different than the rest - vulnerable, and not yet hardened by feral life. I made the assumption that she had a home. I tried to let her humans do right by her - but someone had already failed her horribly, and they weren’t stepping forward to acknowledge that. She, like many of the cats I have taken in, had been given up on. Now, she has the second chance she deserves - and the babies she is probably carrying have a chance at life. When no one else seemed to care, there was Jean with Hilltop Haven rescue.