Lucky's Story

I grew up at a plant nursery. There were lots of greenhouses to explore and mice to catch. I had a really big family. I had brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, and cousins... you get the idea. My family was wild. We wouldn't go near a human. The humans that lived in the big house had dogs, and those dogs didn't like us! It was a hard life with lots of competition. The other cats were content to live that way, but not me. I wanted a family. I wanted to be welcomed into the big house, but the people in this big house didn’t want me, and they encouraged their dogs to chase me away.

I spent much of my time in a thick bamboo stand near the driveway where I could watch people come and go. They would come empty handed and leave with their arms full of plants from the greenhouses I played in. I wondered where they came from and where they went when they left with all those plants. Wherever it was, I wanted to go too! I would sometimes follow families as they walked through the greenhouses. I tried to be sneaky and not let them see me watching. I wanted them to notice me, but if they did, I felt afraid and ran away.

One day a family arrived in a big vehicle. This family must have a lot of kids, I thought. I liked kids. They were not as scary as the big ones and they always seemed more interested in me. Sure enough, out jumped two girls and a boy. A boy... I wanted a boy. The family spotted me right away, but I hid in the bamboo. They moved on and started winding their way through the maze of greenhouses. I followed. They noticed me sneaking around and tried to get me to come to them, but I was afraid. I tried to force myself to go to them, but then I would turn and run away. This was my family. I knew it in my heart. Would I be brave enough to follow my heart?

When the time was right, I ran under their car. I wasn't sure how to get inside. Drat! The dog saw me. She started barking furiously, trying to get under the car to catch me. I didn't know what to do. I looked around and found a place to jump up... on the spare tire under the car. There was a lot of commotion outside as someone called the dog off. The family piled into the car and they looked around for me, so as not to run me over. They couldn't see me in my hiding place on the spare tire, so they started the car and drove away.

I was terrified up there watching the ground move under my feet. I started crying, "meow, meow". Eventually the car pulled over and came to a stop. The doors opened and several heads started peering up at me. I was too afraid to move. Someone got a stick and started poking at me to get me to come down. Well, this was my big chance. I knew I had to be brave. I jumped off the tire and went straight to the boy... my boy. I rubbed all over his legs and looked up at him longingly with my big, yellow eyes. Then I rubbed on the Mom... I knew she was the ticket. She looked down at me in bewilderment. I looked back, longingly. She had a choice to make. Would she take me back to the house with the mean dogs? Would she leave me here beside the road? Or... would she take me home?

Lucky for me, she did the right thing and I rode home snuggled tight in the laps of the children. I loved the attention. I had never been held and petted before. The children adored me. They showered me with love. In the front seat, Mom practiced explaining to her husband how she went shopping for plants and came home with a cat. I decided to let her figure that one out and I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

I was a sight. Life had been rough on me and though I was over a year old, I weighed less than four pounds. My ear was terribly swollen and it hurt. It wasn't the first time the ear had bothered me. It seemed my ears itched all the time and I just kept scratching them. The family seemed to know what to do. When we got home, they carried me into the big house. Finally, I was welcome there. They were careful to keep me away from their dogs, who I later found out were very friendly to cats like me. Once inside, they gave me cat food and fresh raw milk, still warm from their cow. I ate non-stop for three days, I was so hungry and thirsty. They made me a little bed on the porch and gave me a litter box. I wanted to make a good impression, so I was very well behaved and used the litter box. Sometimes, in my zest to be good, I tried too hard to bury my mess and accidentally scratched the litter right onto the floor! I would hop out and try furiously to clean it up. This made the family laugh at me, but I could tell they adored me.

The kids made some toys out of feathers and string and I loved playing with them. My favorite was the feather in the boot trick. It took me awhile to figure out where the feather went, but I enjoyed the challenge. After much discussion, the family decided to name me Lucky. I was indeed a lucky cat. I went to the vet and had my ear fixed, though it healed crooked and would never be straight. I had shots and medicine and got "fixed" which was not very nice, but hey, I had a family already.

I was not the only cat in the house. An older cat lived there already, and there were a dozen cats outside. All of the cats here had been rescued from poor living situations and had come from a cat sanctuary. Unlike my family, they were not wild. They loved people, and people loved them. Later on, I got new brothers and sisters that lived in the house with me. They were still kittens and I enjoyed being the big brother.

I got to go outside whenever I wanted. I loved to pick on the other cats and chase squirrels up the trees. I had loads of energy and sometimes the family thought it best if I burned off some of that energy outside. I was privileged to be able to live in the big house. I made sure that I was very good and tried hard to please Mom and Dad. I found out that they didn't like it when I played with marbles on the hardwood floor at three in the morning.

I was always looking for entertainment in the house. Often, the girl's guinea pigs provided that entertainment. I loved to watch them. If they stopped doing something interesting, I would bat at them through the cage to get them moving again. This made the girls very upset. One day, I went upstairs and found the cage top open! I was very excited, now I could really play with the pig! I hopped in the cage, but the little guinea pig was napping in his igloo house. I lay down to wait for him to wake up and fell asleep myself. Later, when the girls came home, they found me asleep in the cage next to the guinea pig. They say I'm quite a character. I suppose that's true. I took a chance and bravely followed my heart and it payed off for me. I got what I wanted, a family, a big house, and... a boy. I truly was Lucky.

I slept with my boy in his room. He got me a cat cozy and kept some food and water right next to the bed for me. He even made me pajamas that I wore at night. They had red and black stripes, were made from an old shirt, and were kind of tight, but they were my very own pajamas and I just smiled and purred. I stayed next to my boy as much as possible. Wherever he was, I was there too… snuggled in his lap or laying next to him. We spent a lot of time together!

One day there was commotion and my boy’s room started changing. I got nervous. It looked like he was packing. I didn’t like it when the family started packing. I got very anxious when they went away. They always made sure someone stayed with me while they were gone, but it wasn’t the same. I had developed a bad habit of picking at things like curtains when I got anxious. I would just sit and pick with one claw to calm my nerves. I knew I wasn’t supposed to, but I couldn’t help it. The family hung old socks where I liked to pick, then I could pick as much as I wanted without ruining the curtains. So, my boy packed… and then he left.

The rest of the family paid extra attention to me because they knew it would be hard on me when he moved out. They tried to explain that he had grown up and went to live on his own in a place where he could not take me with him, but I didn’t understand. I was always happy when he came home to visit, especially if he took a nap with me because then it felt like old times. He paid extra attention to me whenever he came home for a visit and that made me feel special. After a year, there was commotion again and my boy moved back home! I was so happy, everything was as it should be.

Then one day, all of a sudden, something happened to me. My back legs stopped working and I felt a great deal of pain. I was scared and I called out loudly for someone to hear. Mom came and found me dragging my back end across the floor. She knew something was terribly wrong and that I needed help fast. It was late at night, so my normal doctor could not see me. We drove for a long time to get to the hospital. I tried not to cry.

When we finally arrived, I was taken into a back room to see the doctor. He examined me, then wrapped me in a towel and brought me back to Mom and my boy. “I can’t help him,” he said, “he has a blood clot, we call it Saddle Thrombosis.” There was some more discussion, but I wasn’t listening. I was still in a great deal of pain and upset by the doctor’s poking and prodding. Mom was trying to comfort me, but I was struggling in her arms, trying to get away. Then the doctor gave me a shot. The pain finally subsided and I fell asleep… the kind of sleep you don’t wake up from.

Mom held me for a long time, stroking my head. She wanted to make sure I understood that it was time to go, that I couldn’t stay in my body any longer… it had all happened so suddenly. My boy sat nearby, saying his goodbyes. Then they put me in a box, brought me home and buried me in the yard, where I would always be close to my family. I was Lucky… lucky to have been so well loved.