The other day, we were walking the dogs and we heard a kitten meowing from inside my brother-in-law’s house. Since he has a large pit bull and isn’t known for his love of cats, we were surprised. So we stopped for just a second and peered under the door. An extremely irate and small, fluffy cat burst vocalizing its dissatisfaction with everything.
All three dogs are several times larger than this kitten. The dogs began jumping around in agitation but this little kitty wasn’t backing up. We decided we needed to get the dogs out of there before someone got hurt. But the little beast followed us. It was obviously terrified. Its tail was four times its normal size. And yet it kept coming. It chased us around the block. And when we tried to get everyone in the house, it marched its butt right in, still meowing horrendously.
I gave my son all three dog leashes and shut the door to the garage to round up the little kitty. However, as soon as I put it out, it dashed back in. It took three tries to get it out! It climbed the woodpile in front of the house and settled itself into my son’s window, still meowing. The pets lined up at the window to see the spectacle.
So thinking the cat was hungry, my son tried to give it food and water. Since we didn’t want it in the house, he snuck out the animal gate and left the supplies and dashed back in. It certainly was hungry and chowed down on the food like a ravenous monster, sound effects included.
The evening dog walk was suspended since we were now virtual prisoners in the house. The next morning, I tried again to make friends with the little thing. I let it in the garage and gave it food and water. Instead of eating, it dashed past our pets, up the stairs, and zeroed in on Cocoa’s food dish. How it knew where that was, I’ll never know. Cocoa was having none of that and repeatedly flattened the kitten with his paw to try and get it to stop.
I scooped it up and tried cuddles but it just would not be calmed. I tried more food, but it was still at a near-hysterical pitch. The way it was acting, I wouldn’t have been surprised if its head started spinning around. I finally had to put it back outside again.
We snuck out for the morning dog walk when the coast was clear. On our walk, we found a cardboard box on the road near my brother-in-law’s house. We think someone had brought it here to dump, it took shelter in the house, but didn’t count on the big dog. When it heard us, it thought it was rescued and followed us home. And that’s where we stood.
I sent messages to animal lovers and found someone that would take the kitten. I tried to bring it into the garage for safekeeping until they arrived, but it climbed the walls to where we have our solar panel batteries. Fearful that it would get injured, my son put it back outside again.
Finally, my artist friend Claudia came with a special cat backpack and we bundled the little guy up for his trip to his forever home. Whew! What a stressful couple of days. We are so relieved that the poor little mite found a home. We are well past animal capacity at the Flores ranchito, even if people keep leaving their beasties for us to find.
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Surviving Mexico 