You may remember me mentioning Sabrina a while back; this jerk of my and
Louie's acquaintance put her out, just bored with having a cat, and
she'd holed herself up in a nearby vacant building.

She's home now. Our home. We have a new little girl, the poor thing.

She was good and chunky when I last saw her in May. When we got her
today, you could see her spine and shoulder blades. It tore me and Louie
up to see how she devoured the pouch of Whiskas we brought for her and
sucked up water like a little sponge. Richard told us he'd last taken
her food and water Monday, the SOB. There wasn't a dish to be seen in
the place though, unless he just brought a handful of dry kibble and
heaped it up on the floor.

He'd told us his girlfriend was the one who wanted the cat gone. She
came to us and asked if we were bringing her back in the house, why were
we taking her? The girl doesn't have a lot of sense, certainly not
enough to realize that a man who abuses an animal is just as likely to
abuse a partner. We told her we were taking her to the vet, which was
quite true. But no way are we taking her back over there, not as long as
Richard's there to put her out again.

Sabrina had dropped a good five pounds in two months. Her teeth were
good, her skin and coat in good shape, though dry; they gave her fluids
because she was quite dehydrated. FIV and FeLeuk negative, for which I
profoundly thank God. Got her shots and treated for fleas. And she was
cussing all the way, and I thank God for that too. Sabrina is not a mean
cat, on the contrary. She was always sweet and friendly with me and
Louie. But all the poking, prodding, blah blah blah! I'd cuss too. I'm
glad she cussed--a cat who cusses has fight, her spirit hasn't been
beaten out of her by man nor circumstance. But we got a surprise when
the vet said she was older than any of us thought, closer to eight than
four as we believed. This was because she saw some crazy thing which the
doctor referred to as "nuclear degeneration" and it was typical in older
cats. I'm not making that up, she did indeed say nuclear.

I hope she'll be with us a good long while yet. She deserves so much
better than what she's been through the past year, losing her original
two-leg and then going into Richard's home. Several homes of Richard, as
he has quite a talent for losing apartments. I hope we can do right by
her and make up for everything. We just figured that an older cat in a
shelter is going to have a heluva time getting placed, and they have
enough problems as it is; we got hundreds of Katrina pets sent to
Buffalo, and the shelters are busting at the seams, and their
checkbooks.

I don't know if you all believe in God or what, but I have to take this
on faith that He/She will provide, that the work will come in for me
even if it's just some temp stuff here and there for the moment. My
disability leave was proof that we can do for a few months on one
income, because I got neither my benefit nor pay from the bank due to a
computer glitch until the leave was almost over. I even wonder if this
isn't part of some grand design that involved losing my job; it might
have been a lot harder to find and rescue Sabrina if I were still there.
And she is scared out of her mind right now and just needs to know we're
here, even if we're here while she's hiding in the closet like she's
doing now. We'll sequester her a time, until we get her chubby again,
and start the integration going. She was raised with a large,
hyperactive dog, so I figure she can hold her own with the Juvies, and
she's polite enough for the Ladies. I'm fairly confident, but first
things first. She needs some quiet time, some nursing, lots of food and
love and knowledge that she's staying put. She really is a sweet little
thing; she kept putting her head in my hands for petting as we went
looking for an open vet, and kept owning my legs.And she's another tuxie
too! She has the classic open-jacket tuxedo and a black mask over her
eyes, with white cheeks and a black patch down her chin. Maybe when she
stops being mad and comes out of the closet I may be privileged to get a
picture. She is really very cute! To be totally honest, I didn't want to
surrender her to the shelter, no matter our situation. Louie and I are
good with cats who've been in bad situations, and we believe that God
doesn't give you something without giving you the means to deal with it
too.

She came with the name Sabrina and seems to like it; and as we have a
custom of middle-naming our cats too, we decided hers would be Katana,
Sabre in Japanese. Join me in welcoming our newest little girl! It just
occurred to me that Stosh has quite a harem now! :-)

Blessed be,
Baha