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She once was lost, now she's found...

I promised Part II of the Kitty Farrell story, but we must fast-forward to Part III.



She'd been MIA for a few weeks, and then she came around one morning.  I was ecstatic to see her, until I got close enough to get a good look at her.  Her back leg was dragging.  Didn't know how to respond but thought, "a BOX!  a BLANKET! have to catch her!".  By the time I had gotten those things together, she had limped away.

I borrowed traps, tried to catch her for almost 2 weeks, with no sightings at all.  I did catch a Tom Cat, and had him TNR'ed. Installing a day/night "wildlife cam" revealed some cats with collars having a stroll, along with a rat or two, but no sign of Kitty.  A response to an "injured cat" posting on a local neighborhood group resulted in a response from a woman claiming she had seen the cat, and that she looked fine.  Didn't believe that assessment, hoped for more location info from this person, but they also noted they "were NOT okay with trapping cats".   Clearly, she misunderstood my pleas for help in catching Kitty...  After about 10 days,  I put the traps away, thinking she was either gone forever, or managing without my help (but in my heart, I didn't believe that for a moment, having seen her injury.)

Two days ago, on my way to Jury Duty(!), I turned towards the garage, and there was Kitty!   She rubbed up against my ankles, and I got a cursory look at her injured leg; still bloody, now the paw and lower leg were droopy, with her tucking the leg up under her.  Not wanting to spook her, I put out food, and  I did get some photos of her on my cell phone.  For some insane reason, the idea of missing Jury Duty and risking the wrath of the judicial system kept me from grabbing her.  With a feral cat, if you choose to try to grab them, even if they "trust" you, you risk injury to yourself and them, as well as creating a DIStrust that may not be mended. 

My boyfriend looked at a photo I sent him, and zoomed into the damaged leg... and saw what I couldn't see on my tiny smartphone screen.  He asked for time off at work, and came to help me catch Kitty.

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