On 4/1/2006 Tabitha arrived at the Nine Lives Foundation, via volunteer jeep transport, from Kern County Animal Shelter. Tabitha is only one example of the multitude of nursing mother cats gets dumped in Central Valley shelters during the long months of California's "kitten season." We believe she was less than 8 months old when she reached us, just a baby struggling to care for babies of her own.When she arrived Tabitha weighed barely 5lbs and was attempting to nurse her seven, week old, kittens. Sadly, she was sick with a nasty Upper Respiratory Infection (URI) , very common in cats that come from the Kern County Animal Shelter, malnourished and was unable to feed her kittens. We took them from her after a couple of days and bottle fed them all but they developed her URI and passed away one at a time over the following 2 weeks, despite all of our efforts to save them.
To our amazement, Tabitha recovered and over the 6 months that followed she developed quite a charming personality. She filled out and even got a little plump, perhaps the daily Friskies wet food she got could have been reduced in portion. And her coat became sleek, long and gorgeous. She was in such poor shape when she arrived that we hadn't even realized that she was a long haired cat.
Just before Christmas of 2006 a lovely couple came in looking for an affectionate, female lap cat to join their family. Tabitha had the same name as the cat they'd recently lost, perhaps that's why they first took her to the "Get Acquainted Room" but she quickly made them appreciate all that was special about the Tabitha in front of them. She went home that very day, on a trial adoption and became Bailey.
She took a few weeks to fully settle into her new home, but she clearly rules the roost now. As Bailey, Tabitha now has everything she could ever need, a loving family, a safe secure home of her own and all the treats and toys she could possibly ever desire. We're working on finding her a sister now, then her life will be perfect. ;)
Written by: LH
2 comments:
We are Bailey's parents and thank you for saving her. We adore her and she so appreciates her life. She instantly purrs when we pick her up. We are still hearbroken after our loss of our cat after 17 years but Bailey is our center- Thank you for telling her story - All three of is are truly lucky.
Bailey baby!
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