I know there are plenty of readers here who love their furbabies as much and David and I love ours. I sat down and had a good cry with Rina when Azzie died and David and I just held each other and let it out when we had to let Chester go.
But David will tel you about my attachment to a certain orange one and he admits that there is a special bond with her too because we rescued her when she was so young. One night, when I was still in Northville and Kaline was still a kitten, maybe 6 months, Scotty was over for our usual Wednesday night dinner and he was helping my move a couple of boxes out into the garage. He left the door open for just a few minutes while he was doing it. When he came back in, we gave Azzie her medicine and put the food out. Azzie was eating and..no Kaline. I called around the house and couldn’t find her, Scotty helped me look. No Kaline. There my face went white. What if she went out when the door was open?
We looked in the garage and area around the house calling her. we walked up and down the street calling her. I was trembling. Scotty took a ride in his truck to the next street over and the sub under construction across the larger street. I called David, in tears, frantic. He said he’d come over.
Remember, that was an hour and a quarter drive at that time!
Scotty came back, with no kitten. It was getting dark. We went back into he kitchen and I told him David was coming out, fighting back more tears. Then, the tiny tap of claws on the linoleum and a little meow followed by a big yawn. The whole time we were looking for her and I was freaking out, Kaline had been asleep somewhere in the house we hadn’t looked!
I hugged her like crazy and called David. He was almost at the state line, which is closer to Toledo than Northville, so he headed back home, relieved that she was okay.
Thankfully, a happy ending. But it’s not always like that. I remember one Christmas party night that John came back after he left and brought Azzie in. She’d gone out with everyone when they were leaving and was sitting in the front yard in the rain, shivering. She was lost and scared. Thankfully she didn’t run looking for home and get more lost. But cats are curious creatures and sometimes they do go out, even house cats.
Home Again is a wonderful answer to the nightmare of thoughts that your furbaby could be the one in three pets who get lost in their lifetime. According the the Home Again Web Site, 90% of pets without proper identification never make it home. With a membership with Home Again, your pet is injected with a microchip, the best way to identify him or her if they ever get lost, better than a tag that can fall off, or be taken off, and much better than describing a spot or stripe in their fur! The member ship also includes the National Home Again Pet Recovery database, lost pet alerts, medical insurance for lost pets and a 24/7 medical emergency hotline.
In support of the American Humane Associations’ “Be Kind to Animals Week,” For each pet registered, Home Again will make a donation through Bring Pets Home, a fundraising Web site specifically created to help shelter animals, so protecting one furbaby is also sheltering more while they wait to be found or to find a home.
I know what it feels like to hold a wet, scared and shivering cat who was lost out in the rain and I’ve felt the knots in my stomach thinking a kitten has gotten out and run off out of the neighborhood. The microchip is the best way to be sure your cat or dog is identified right away and if they do get lost, there will be humans to help them find their way home.
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