Some of you have heard me mention the two cats I found two years ago in the backyard. For those of you who haven’t here’s the story. Late October after a frost I was dumping compost in the big composter at the edge of the property and as I turned to go back to the house I saw what I thought was a dead newborn kitten laying in the grass. It didn’t move or open it’s eyes when I touched it but I thought there might still be a chance for it so I ran to the house and got a small box and a warm towel and ran back to place him in the box. As I was turning to again head back to the house out of the corner of my eye I saw something white move in the tall grass beside me. It was another newborn kitten! She mewed and ran further into the woods. First things first, let’s get this frozen cat in the house and warmed up. Then back outside to where I had seen the white kitten. I stood for at least five minutes in that area looking and listening and finally I was rewarded with a scratchy sounding mew by my feet. Got the second cat!
Back in the house now the first cat slowly opened it’s eyes but it was too weak to do anymore than that. I warmed up some milk and used a plastic syringe to drip feed it, then did the same for his sister. After a couple of trips to the vet and some bottle feeding by the two week mark these cats were really coming around. The boy cat we named Lazarus for his amazing feat of coming back from the dead and we were at a loss to name the female white cat, so we just went with Lazarus’s wife’s name from the bible – Mary.
Laz and Mary have been great additions to our family along with the rescue dog Misty and the barn kitten Winnie we already had. But these two were very different cats from our barn kitten. The first Christmas they were up in the tree minutes after we brought it in. That was the Christmas we spent putting the tree back up and redecorating it every day.
The second year we put up a smaller artificial tree. Here’s what they did to it. They removed the middle part !!
So this year, the cats have won. I went out and bought a “cat tree” which is just a base, a pole and several platforms for cats to play on. And we decorated it for Christmas!
