The story of how a young feral kitten found a loving home.

I want to introduce you to PC, a young Siamese-tabby mix. With turquoise eyes and slightly tufted ears, she looks a bit like a miniature bobcat. This is the story of how PC came to be a part of our lives . . . and our hearts. Wally has a shop in an industrial part of town. One night while we were having dinner, he mentioned he had seen a gray tabby cat hanging around. It was a female and she had one kitten, a little ball of fluff with Siamese points. Wanting to help them, Wally bought cat food and a dish and started feeding the cat and her kitten twice a day. He even made a special trip to the shop on the days he didn’t work – just to feed the cats. It didn’t take long for them to figure out they had a new meal ticket! They were feral and kept their distance but they were usually waiting outside the shop when Wally came back from a job. Or if he was working at the shop for the day, they would show up early, demanding to be fed. I laughed when he complained that they wouldn’t stick to a schedule – what did he expect from cats? When we estimated the kitten was about six months old, we contacted a Spay/Release program and borrowed two cages. Wally baited the cages with aromatic canned cat food and the next morning, there was the mama cat, lounging in one of the cages. She was calm, cool - and visibly pregnant again! A woman from the S/R program picked her up and took her to the vet, where she was examined and it was confirmed that she was indeed “with kitten.” They took her to a feline foster home to stay until the kittens were born and weaned. Then she would be spayed and then returned to the shop area while the S/R program folks found homes for the kittens. Back at the shop, Wally baited the cage again. The next morning he had a very irate, yowling-at-the-top-of-her-lungs kitten – she was mad and terrified! Her entire world had been turned upside down. Her mother was gone and now she was trapped! Unfortunately, it was a weekend and we couldn’t take her to the vet until Monday. We couldn’t leave her in the cage all weekend, but we had two cats at home, so bringing her there wasn’t a great option either. Wally finally locked her in the shop where she would be safe. He set up a food dish, cat box, and a soft blanket for her to sleep on. I brought over a few toys for her to play with and asked Wally to leave the light on for her. She hid every time we walked in the door but it was obvious from the scattered mice and balls that she was having a blast when she was alone! By the end of the weekend, Wally had dubbed her Pussy Cat and I had shortened it to “PC.” She was a cute little thing – very unusual coloring and very pretty! I was saddened to hear that the S/R people thought she was already too old to be domesticated and adopted; after spaying, she would be turned loose back at the shop. And since her mother was on maternity leave at the foster home, she would be alone . . . Our young female, Catra, had also just turned six months old and we decided Wally should take her to the vet at the same time. Both kittens had their surgery and he picked them up later the same day. Unwilling to turn PC loose at the shop with stitches in her belly and no mama to protect her, Wally brought her home with Catra, who was not at all pleased with the situation! PC was terrified and hid under the furniture (and sometimes on top of it). Catra –our sleek black princess – suddenly turned into the Halloween cat from Hell! She was blatantly hostile, hissing and spitting every time poor PC poked her head out. Phaze - our mature Siamese male - ignored them both; he had better things to do than referee a cat spat between two feline teenagers. Two weeks later, Wally took “the girls” back to have their stitches removed and get their shots. By that time, Catra had gotten over her miff and was best buddies with PC. Phaze had warmed up to her a bit as well. And somewhere along the line, we had realized that she was home and we had become a three-cat family. In the meantime, there was good news for the mama cat as well. Apparently she was not a born feral and she had become very sociable when she realized she was among friends. The foster parents decided to adopt her! They named her Charlotte. Charlotte soon gave birth to five beautiful kittens, one of which looked just like PC. It’s almost a year later now and the new kittens have all long since found homes. Seven cats rescued – seven lives saved. There is little doubt that these cats would have had a short life except for Wally. But Wally doesn’t understand why it’s a big deal – or why I call him a prince. He was just doing what he had to do. At home, PC is slowly learning to be part of our family. She and Catra still play on a daily basis, romping and racing and generally pretending they are trying to kill each other. As for Phaze, PC has a major crush on him. It’s not unusual to see her rubbing up against him, flirting – and Phaze running away like an eight-year-old threatened with his first kiss! When it comes to me and Wally, she is still very shy. She won’t approach us to be petted – but if we catch her, she loves to snuggle and purr. Sometimes when she is feeling very brave, she stretches out on the bed and lets us pet her. Other times she follows me around the house, always staying 2-3 feet away – when I stop, she just sits there, squeezing her eyes at me and twitching her ears. And sometimes at night she jumps on the bed and lies down by our feet; as long as we don’t move, she can pretend we don’t know she’s there. It’s slow progress and it is going to take some time . . . but we have the time for this new little girl of ours. THE END