First, sorry for the length but this is a story and a half.
So, I think I may have been adopted by a third cat after all (http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=225764 for those that don't know what I'm talking about). I was taking the trash out to the dumpster in the alley, when I heard light, scared mews coming from between two garages. I look, and here is the adorable face that greeted me.
She was filthy, half frozen (it's 11 degrees out with windchill), has a minor case of fleas, and she's pretty skinny, but otherwise looks to be in good health. She was so dirty that I thought she was a Tortie at first, not a Torbie. I got the cat carrier and took her inside (she wiggled too much for me to carry her), bathed her, flea combed her, and fed her (not a single one of those things was easy, she is really scared), and she is now asleep in a hockey skate in the corner of my roommate's mostly unused walk-in closet, seperated in case of FeLV and to prevent the unfrozen fleas from spreading. The maddening part is it looks like she was a TNR on the streets of chicago!
No effort to bring her to a shelter or anything, just abandoned back onto the winter streets. She looks to be about 3 months old with a fully healed spay incision, though the area is still bald.
I'm 95% sure I know she's not someone's pet cat because I couldn't feel a microchip like I could on Tails when he was that age, and her general state before I bathed her looked.... "people independent". Also, I believe I have seen her mom, a calico cat with the same colors, in the alleys behind my building since we moved in. Months ago she looked a little plump, and last week she was on my back deck (I live on the 2nd floor and my deck has a low gated entrance, so it wasn't an idle visit), skinny and with teats hanging down like a nursing, or just-had-been-nursing, mother. At first I thought she was sniffing the cats' refuse bags I keep in the outside trash , but now I think she was seperated from her kittens (assuming multiple, might just be this one) when they were TNRed and she might have smelled cats and came to investigate
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I am torn about what I should do, after I take her to the vet to have her looked at, tested for FeLV, flea medded, and scanned for a chip of course. I will put up some posters on the corners, but if that fails like I think it will due to her not being anyone's kitten, I am at a juncture. This seems like fate that a kitten finds me just as I'm facing the decision to get a third cat. However, I do realize I still have not made that decision yet, and I shouldn't let happenstance be my guiding voice when real issues are present like finances (though if you read my old article, yes my parents will help me by giving me loans for emergency surgeries, etc, and my mom does bring up a big bag of cat food, some litter, and cans of wet food whenever she comes to visit). I can always bring her to the SPCA and know she'll be immediately adopted because of her age.
Even if I do decide to give her to a shelter, I would foster her first at least until she has fattened up; I don't like the definition I can feel in her individual vertibra. I have time to decide, since I wouldn't be able to begin introductions until the fleas are eradicated and FeLV is ruled out anyway, so I am looking to the wise members here for guidance. My heart says keep the kitten, but I am electing YOU, the members, as my brain and possibly common sense in this situation. Even if you don't have advice, you can still post about how cute this scared little angel is, I don't mind
So, I think I may have been adopted by a third cat after all (http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=225764 for those that don't know what I'm talking about). I was taking the trash out to the dumpster in the alley, when I heard light, scared mews coming from between two garages. I look, and here is the adorable face that greeted me.
She was filthy, half frozen (it's 11 degrees out with windchill), has a minor case of fleas, and she's pretty skinny, but otherwise looks to be in good health. She was so dirty that I thought she was a Tortie at first, not a Torbie. I got the cat carrier and took her inside (she wiggled too much for me to carry her), bathed her, flea combed her, and fed her (not a single one of those things was easy, she is really scared), and she is now asleep in a hockey skate in the corner of my roommate's mostly unused walk-in closet, seperated in case of FeLV and to prevent the unfrozen fleas from spreading. The maddening part is it looks like she was a TNR on the streets of chicago!
No effort to bring her to a shelter or anything, just abandoned back onto the winter streets. She looks to be about 3 months old with a fully healed spay incision, though the area is still bald.I'm 95% sure I know she's not someone's pet cat because I couldn't feel a microchip like I could on Tails when he was that age, and her general state before I bathed her looked.... "people independent". Also, I believe I have seen her mom, a calico cat with the same colors, in the alleys behind my building since we moved in. Months ago she looked a little plump, and last week she was on my back deck (I live on the 2nd floor and my deck has a low gated entrance, so it wasn't an idle visit), skinny and with teats hanging down like a nursing, or just-had-been-nursing, mother. At first I thought she was sniffing the cats' refuse bags I keep in the outside trash , but now I think she was seperated from her kittens (assuming multiple, might just be this one) when they were TNRed and she might have smelled cats and came to investigate
.I am torn about what I should do, after I take her to the vet to have her looked at, tested for FeLV, flea medded, and scanned for a chip of course. I will put up some posters on the corners, but if that fails like I think it will due to her not being anyone's kitten, I am at a juncture. This seems like fate that a kitten finds me just as I'm facing the decision to get a third cat. However, I do realize I still have not made that decision yet, and I shouldn't let happenstance be my guiding voice when real issues are present like finances (though if you read my old article, yes my parents will help me by giving me loans for emergency surgeries, etc, and my mom does bring up a big bag of cat food, some litter, and cans of wet food whenever she comes to visit). I can always bring her to the SPCA and know she'll be immediately adopted because of her age.
Even if I do decide to give her to a shelter, I would foster her first at least until she has fattened up; I don't like the definition I can feel in her individual vertibra. I have time to decide, since I wouldn't be able to begin introductions until the fleas are eradicated and FeLV is ruled out anyway, so I am looking to the wise members here for guidance. My heart says keep the kitten, but I am electing YOU, the members, as my brain and possibly common sense in this situation. Even if you don't have advice, you can still post about how cute this scared little angel is, I don't mind
She is absolutely beautiful... Now give that sweet princess a name and get used to the fact that she's your 3rd kitty. 
She had made it all the way to the bedroom door. This is definitely progress, as I believe a cat with feral instincts wouldn't have even ventured out within 24 hours of getting here.
