Yesterday I asked on facebook if anyone had a topic for me to write about and someone asked how Gutter Kitty was doing.
Aww, Gutter Kitty!
If you are a new visitor, you probably don’t know about him, but if you are a frequent visitor, you probably remember that Charlotte found a kitty living in the gutter back in April.
And brought it home.
Slowly that kitty went from us feeding him, to us feeding him and checking on him every day, to us keeping him in our backyard.
To me letting him in my office to lay on my lap. And my couch.
If you are a parent, you know how it is.
Now we already had 4 kitties. 4 kitties is a lot of kitties.
For our house full of cats, having another one pretty much was like sealing our fate to hell for all eternity.
Those of you with cats know what I am talking about.
Then gutter kitty went and got himself hurt. To top it off, Gutter Kitty was not fixed, which meant shots and vet visits and lord knows what else.
We just couldn’t watch him get infected and die, so we caved and took him to the vet.
We even held a poll for his name.
(Good friend and website Romeo the Cat helped cover some of his medical expenses)
Shortly after we had resigned to the fact that gutter kitty was going to graduate to the name Beretta (that’s the street we found him living on) and live in our house full time, my DH had a connection with an old friend in high school. She just happened to work with pet rescue and had a personal friend that was looking for a cat.
Her friend, Chris, came over and fell in love with gutter kitty and adopted him.
Now I’ll be honest.
It was hard for me to let Gutter Kitty go. I knew that someone had abandoned this cat. He was clearly a very loving pet, more loving than my own cats, and I just couldn’t stomach having him go through any more. Even though I didnt want another cat, after all this poor sweet baby had been through, I was so scared that he would be dropped off again.
We asked Chris (the new adopted parent) that if at any time if he couldn’t keep him, he would bring him back to us -no questions asked.
That was 4 months ago in April.
So I emailed him yesterday to check in.
Gutter Kitty has been christened with his new name Alexei.
Alexei means defender or warrior, which I think is appropriate for all he has been through.
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Here is an email from his forever parent:
He’s strictly indoors now and has full roam of my apartment. He’s extremely affectionate when I first get home or out of bed for about 20 minutes, then he attacks my hands for about 4 hours… he’s still young. At the last vet visit in June they estimated that he was between 12-14 months at that time.
He’s healthy and everyone talks about how beautiful he is.
He’s gray, but has darker gray bands from head to toe that are only just noticeable in the right lighting. Obviously his wounds healed nicely months ago. He reminds me of some Japanese cartoon cat… he wags his butt from side to side just before he pounces like he’s got to get his hips set just right before taking off. He sprints around the apartment and up and down the furniture. He probably needs a playmate but I’m not willing to step off into all of that yet. Alexei is perfectly comfortable stretching out on top of you, but his favorite game is attacking my feet under the covers so he doesn’t sleep in my room much.
I’ve never heard him hiss, he doesn’t growl, and he really doesn’t get frustrated much.
I had to put an impromptu head cone on him once and the didn’t get pissy, he just sulked. I take him to the vet without a cage and he just curls up tightly on my lap and stays put as long as I pet him, even though there are dogs going crazy everywhere.
Alexei was just over 7lbs when I got him but he’s well over 10lbs now.
His eyes are still green, and I may break my neck one day because he tries to predict which room I’m heading in then races to beat me there but stops under foot. Typical cat minus all the cat hassles, except for the claw marks.
He’s so good you probably should have given me one of the other ones!
~Chris
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Thanks to all the loving and adopting parents like Chris that make a difference in the end.
~Trisha
What a beautiful ending! I have to say that you and Charlotte have hearts like mine when it comes to animals. I love seeing others that care so much. Your kitties are all very lucky to have your home as theirs…and Alexei is a lucky boy as well!
Thanks for the update and for the happy ending. I love when animals get a pet of their own to love.
How wonderful!!! It’s awesome that he found a good home and his owner sounds like he really cares for him!!
I’m an ABSOLUTE cat lover! People can have their dogs, give me a cat ANY day!
HERE KITTY KITTY! Meoooooow!
Oops, sorry! Anyway, glad Alexei (I kind of like Gutter Kitty better) found a great new home.
Glad Gutter Kitty found such a good home.
me too!
Awww what an awesome name! SO glad he’s doing better. I’m all for Cats as well. Thanks for the update!
Kas
i love his name too!
Awwwwwwwwww! That is so great! I love his new name!!!
me too! Im glad he has a home and name that will be his.
what a sweet check up story! So happy that ex-Gutter kitty has a wonderful forever home! All animals should be so lucky
If morons could stop dumping pets. My Dh told me that someone from his job dumped his pets in a neighborhood …said they would find a home. RIDICULOUS.
aww gutter kitty won the heart of all of us and nice to see he’s won the heart of another. Glad he found a forever home
although I started to cry when I heard you had to let him go…awwww
we would have kept him if he didnt find a home. We are suckers.
I am so glad to hear he is doing so well!
I’m glad that Gutter Kitty was loved, because someone around here didn’t pay attention to their dog. It must have been running loose and must have gotten hit by a car or struck by lightening on the block behind me. I heard the firetrucks and wondered what was going on. Someone must have called and thought there was a person lying by the side of the road. Actually when I first looked out my back yard that’s what it looked like to me to. But then the fire dept. left and the very large dog was still there. I think it was a dog, not a bear. It had two different colorings of brown. Another reason I think it was a dog was a couple of people came and I think the lady started crying. Just moments ago I know I heard a shot gun. Maybe the dog was so badly hurt and not yet dead that it had to be put out of it’s misery.
I do not think noise was thunder, it was too close and too loud. I know what a shot gun sounds like.
Another thing that bothered me about this whole thing is the lady who lives across the street who has a little boy about eight or nine years old. When she heard the siren she came blasting out of her house thinking it was her child. Note it was already getting dark and the weather is bad and her son isn’t home. She’s always having to go off looking for him.
I think it’s very scary that she doesn’t always know where he is. He’s too young to have as much freedom as it seems to me he has. Thank God above that it wasn’t her son laying there on the side of the road.
thats terribly sad.
Awww such a great update!
SO happy for Gutter Kitty! The whole story (except for the a-holes that let him go in the first place) just warms my heart. As a 3 cat household, I know what it’s like to really want to help them all, but know that the difference between 3 & 4 cats (or 4 & 5) is the difference between a conflict & a war.
Thanks so much for the update!
es, we had 5 till mei sei passed. I am waiting for one more to pass (LOL) and our house will be calm again.
Awww, so happy gutter kitty found a forever home!!!
Awwwww great news!