CAT RESCUE in the CATSKILLS

FAH - TEE - MAH - TEE - TOE - MAH - TEE - KAH - TEE

I remember a frozen February evening,
much like this one tonight,
where the thermometer read below zero
and snow crystals blew
and whistled in the wind.

It was a quiet evening until the phone rang. 
My neighbor called to report
a cat howling on her porch.

I was still hunting for my kitty
who had vanished some months before. 

Hopeful,
I trudged through the crisp piles of snow
that separated our homes,
when I spied the shadow of
a hunched and howling cat. 



I called softly,

"kitty - kitty - kitty".

To my great surprise and delight,
she ran directly into my arms !

I  promptly tucked her in my jacket 
where she 
instantly
went
limp.

Only an occasional shiver let me know she was still alive.

Alas,
In the light of my foyer
I discovered
she was
NOT
my returned beloved.

Still, she was in dire need of safe haven,
infested with fleas,
worms crawling out of her nose and mouth,
and starved beyond emaciation.

Obviously that evening would have been her last.

The local country Veterinarian,
whose expertise saved her life,
recognized her as being one of his patients
and phoned the family that owned her. 

His face dropped as he handed the receiver to me. 

The woman declared,
"We had hoped she was dead ! 
We put her in a cardboard box and
tossed her in the woods several months ago !
If you want that mean vicious miserable biter
that peed and pooped all over my house,
you can
keep her !"

Yes... I did just exactly that !
It cost me several hundred dollars in Vet bills.
Yes...it did !

I renamed this ten year old
"Katie"

to

FATIMA

and she never stopped
purrrrrrrrrrrring
for 
ALL 
the rest of her very happy years with me.

She especially loved whenever I sang to her
and
sat up with pride when I sing-songed:
 
FAH-TEE

MAH-TEE

TOE-MAH-TOW

KAH-TEE

She sat and admired her food bowl for hours
with those lovely green eyes
and I teased her for becoming a little plump.

She patiently and lovingly helped my husband and I
raise a rambunctious puppy.

She meowed with concern whenever she heard a baby cry on TV.

She was super sweet,
incredibly kind,
hysterically funny,
and clean as a whistle...

and
never ever,
never,
NO ,
NOT EVEN ONCE
did she ever display
what she had been accused of.

Fatima was eighteen
the day she had her final visit at the Vet.


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