The Answer (or The Story of Rex)

Ok, let me start off by writing that I am no Mother Teresa. Shocking news to all of you, I'm sure, but I did start reading her book, pictured in the last post, a little over a week ago after checking it out from the library, and I really like it so far. As I'm sure you know, Mother Teresa is renowned for loving people in the world who are lonely, poor, misshappen, diseased, etc., the least "lovable" from a conventional standpoint, which is something that I have always admired.

Anyway about 3 weeks ago, this hideous, dishevaled and clearly homeless cat decided to camp in our front patio and looked like it already had one foot in the grave and/or was ready to have kittens. We didn't know which. In fact, we didn't even know if it was male or female, and quite frankly, we didn't care to investigate. What we did know was that it was filthy, stout (which is why we thought it may have been expecting kittens), had clumps of matted together fur on its back, the biggest clump being at least the size of a golf ball, and that it looked to be in poor health. My initial thought was that it chose our patio as a sort of shelter in which to pass on to the next world in peace.

Shayne really liked it right away and built it a shelter with a towel (which will never be used again) and one of our patio chairs. At that time it was still pretty hot out, so he gave it some water. The next morning it was still there. We had been talking about maybe getting a kitten and Shayne would say things like, "Why can't we keep it? It's so cute. We wanted to get another cat and this cat needs a home. Let's give it some food. It's hungry." Again, I am no Mother Teresa, which would have been abundantly clear to anyone who could have read my thoughts about the cat at that time, but I was conflicted. The cat certainly was not cute- I don't think that was a matter of opinion. More than that, it looked deseased and dirty. But, we didn't want to teach Shayne that we don't help living things that clearly are soliciting our help just because they are extremely unattractive. So, Rick and I told him that it could be our patio cat, and we gave it some food and some more water. Every morning I was expecting to come out to find the cat dead, gone or with a litter of kittens. None of those things happened, but every day Shayne spent lots of time with it, and made sure its shelter was in good repair and that it had food and water. They were bonding.

After a week of being our patio cat, the kids and I were leaving for school, and the cat came up to the door and tried to get in. This was no surprise, as it had tried to get in several times over the previous few days, getting bolder with each attempt. But this time it was insistant. It faked left, and then right, and then made a run for it. More than anything I was surprised at how quickly it moved. Sick? Maybe it wasn't going to die after all... Anyway, we couldn't find it and we were going to be late so we had to leave it in the house while we were gone that day. It basically refused to leave after that with an iron will I have never seen in a cat and have rarely seen in a person. It simply would not be denied.

So after resigning to the idea that it was going to be staying in the house, I decided to attempt to clean it. I put it in the bathtub and tried to wash out the clumps of fur. Whatever it was that was matted in the fur was not water-soluble, so I didn't get very far. Even when it was in the bathtub and clearly distressed, it did not try to bite or scratch. I took it out, dried it off and tried combing through its fur. 50 minutes later, I had it all combed out, and had only had to cut out the very last of the biggest clump. The cat was very patient and docile during the whole ordeal, considering the discomfort of having all that sticky stuff combed out of its fur. It actually has cleaned itself with no problem since then, which has been a relief.

The next step was to give it a name. We let Shayne name it since it was basically his cat. He decided to call it "Rex". We shortly realized that Rex is a lady cat, but that's ok, Rex seems to fit. She has been with us for almost 2 weeks and has taken every liberty in the house, fully making herself at home. Hoser treated us like we were all traitors for a few days, but has gotten over it. We had our neighbor, who is a veterinary assistant, take a look at her and she said she looks healthy, and maybe three or four years old. She also said Rex is fat with poofy fur, and not pregnant. So I doubt she was homeless very long since she appears to have not missed many meals. The photo was taken after she was cleaned up and she doesn't look too bad. I really should have taken a "before" photo so you could have appreciated the transformation. Hoser isn't much of a mentor, but he tolerates her now at least.

Anyway, we felt good about taking her in and fixing her fur and all, taking a page from Mother Teresa's playbook and trying to love the least-lovable so to speak. Hopefully she will have a long, happy and healthy life with us.

So Mom and Dad were probably the closest, but to be fair to the rest of you, they had a little more information. And Dad, I'm sure "public ridicule" is just over the horizon, but we're used to it. Remember what our last cat looked like (may he rest in peace)...Thanks for all of your guesses.