(This is a true story - and it's kind of long...)
Once upon a time, a couple of professionals working in the healthcare-industry packed up their belongings and their three stray/rescue/shelter cats and moved from Louisville, KY to the arid high desert of New Mexico. There are fewer allergens here than in the Ohio River valley and the couple looked forward to spending some time outside.
About 2 years (to the day!) after the couple moved, the husband (who has been known to tell his bride - "No more cats!"), told his wife that he had seen a stray black cat on the patio the night before. The wife quietly nodded; fully aware that they would have "no more cats". Interestingly, a few days later, the same husband started sneaking bits of dried cat food onto the porch to feed the stray. Eventually, the bits were placed into a plastic bowl and accompanied by fresh water daily. Sure, no more cats. As the stray became more comfortable, the couple could see it through the patio doors. It was a pure black cat who was missing half an ear. The wife dubbed the stray a "her" and named her Inky. (The following week, the wife met a person who stated she had a "terrible week" the week before...that her cat of 18 years, Inky, had passed away. The wife was astonished...and told the person not to be so sad - that Inky's spirit was now visiting her home on the outskirts of town. The lady smiled, her sorrow lessened a bit, and said the thought of that brought her a bit of peace). Could it be a sign? No more cats.
Inky would not let the couple near; she would only eat in the evening, when the patio lights were off and no one was outside. One night, the couple noticed Inky wore a collar - and they were hopeful that one day, they might get close enough to read it and hopefully reunite her with her humans. Unfortunately, the next time they saw her, the collar was gone. Looks like Inky was now on her own...
A few weeks later, house guests arrived from Louisville and heard Inky's tale while they were talking quietly outside on the patio. At the same time, Inky cautiously entered the yard, and went to her bowl to eat. The ladies all watched with anticipation. Perhaps progress was being made after all. Too bad her collar was missing. Hmmm....no more cats.
In the weeks following that visit, Inky began lounging on the patio furniture in the evening. Every night, before bedtime, the couple would turn on the patio light to see if Inky was settled in for the night. They were relieved to see her out there consistently. Maybe one day they could coax her indoors (no more cats). On one particular evening, they flipped on the patio light and found a surprise! Inky was lounging on her chair, and another black cat was eating food. The one eating had a collar! Inky's buddy was instantly nicknamed Shadow. Absolutely, no more cats! The couple began putting out enough food for two cats.
As the weather worsened, the wife decided the cats needed shelter from the monsoon rains and impending high desert snows. The couple purchased and placed a dog shelter on the patio, large enough to house both cats should the weather get too bad. No more cats (oh, please). As the weeks and months passed, the couple did whatever they could to coax the cats to get closer to them, because all cats are in need of petting! These two strays were no exception. Sadly, around this time, one of their own "strays" who found them 10 years ago (and who was coaxed into the home with food and murmuring) passed away. In his time with them, he had gotten plenty of petting. He is missed.
The couple continued to talk to the stray girls through the glass doors, through cracked windows. They put the food closer to the door (until a large skunk found it...then they placed the food on top of the patio table). They hoped the skunk wouldn't move into the dog house. :-) The husband, meanwhile, began using a stronger lure: luncheon meat. And so, after months of feeding and murmuring, he was finally able to get Shadow close enough to pet (Inky would have no part of that). As the weather warmed, the couple could hear the bell on Shadow's collar through the open windows. When they heard the sound, they made an effort to meet her at the window and "chat". Soon, Shadow allowed the couple to pet and feed her by hand. Turns out Shadow was a boy. A sign from the boy they had just lost? No more cats.
Now, the challenge was to get Shadow close enough to read his tag. A few weeks later, success! When the husband picked Shadow up and touched his tag, the tattered collar fell off in his hand. Perhaps in another day or two, the collar would have fallen off by itself - in an open field or nearby culvert. But Shadow was lucky; it fell off on the patio. The tag said Shadow's name was "Romeo" and Romeo had a phone number! The couple dialed the number, but got no answer; no voice mail, no recording. Just the tone of a fax machine. How were they going to find Romeo's humans now? Maybe they were meant to keep this boy as their own (absolutely, positively, no more cats).
The wife Googled the phone number and found it cross-referenced with an healthcare service website (a healthcare worker owned this cat?). The website displayed a person's name and an office phone number. There was no way to know how accurate this information was, but it was worth a shot. The wife called the healthcare company and left a voice message; not knowing if that person still worked there, or if that person was really Romeo's owner. After waiting a few hours for someone to return the call (that never happened), the couple left to run errands. Along the way, they decided that Romeo needed a larger collar. Uh-huh. No more cats.
When they returned home, there was a voice message. The broken voice of a woman stated that she had gotten the message about Romeo and to please call her. She couldn't believe it could be him "after all this time"...she left a new phone number. The wife called and left a voice message. Back and forth for an hour until they finally spoke. As luck (?) would have it, Romeo was sleeping on the patio when the couple returned home; so the husband took him into the garage (so he couldn't get away), and he stayed with Romeo as the wife spoke with Romeo's humans. The cat who would not let anyone near it for the last 9 months crawled into the husband's lap and began to purr - and there is a picture to prove it! Romeo stayed in that lap and received some long overdue petting until his humans arrived. He must have sensed he was going home...
The woman said the cat belonged to one of her daughters and had been lost to them last fall. Romeo's "mom" was now studying abroad, so the woman and her other daughter came to collect him. They recognized him right away; tears were shed. The daughter sat on the floor and Romeo immediately switched laps. :-) Seems he recognized them right away, too.
Romeo's Nine Lives:
About the time the couple moved to New Mexico, a mother across town agreed to let her daughters each have a cat. A local shelter was about to euthanize a bunch of strays, and the woman brought her daughters there to save two cats from that plight - Romeo was given another life. The girls and their cats became inseparable; the two cats themselves became best buddies. One night, Romeo hopped into bed and had a scary lump in his throat...seems the mischievous cat had "swallowed a chopstick" - it was safely extracted (Romeo was given another life). Last summer, the girls graduated from high school and to celebrate, they took a trip across the U.S...leaving their beloved pets at home. Romeo missed his "mom", and escaped the house to find her. Soon after his escape, he was hit by a car. He was taken to a local vet who informed the "grandma" that the cat, who had broken hips and several fractured bones, would die unless she could get his bowels to begin working. Having a healthcare background, she worked diligently and one day, Romeo stood up for the first time and began to walk around. The family was ecstatic! Romeo was still weak and thin, but seems he was given another life! But when Romeo's mom went to study abroad...he ran away again, perhaps to search for her. The daughters were devastated that he had gotten out once more; they blamed the mother for not taking better care to keep him indoors. The mom could only respond that he had "gone off to die in his own way" since he was still so frail. They were sure they would never see him again.
Somehow, he ended up over 20 miles away on a couple's patio in a rural community, where he was fed and sheltered (and given another life). To get there, he had to survive bobcats, coyotes, rattlesnakes and scorpions, monsoon rains, cold snow and humans (including the Animal Control guy who cruised through the community several times)....(another life?). His collar came off the day the husband picked him up for the first time - else it would have probably been lost for all time (another life?) ...the phone number on his collar is outdated, yet Google cross-referenced it with another number to a local healthcare firm (another life?)...
As the story comes to an end, it is interesting to note that Romeo's "grandma" worked for a healthcare firm based in Louisville, Kentucky (where the couple moved from). The company closed its doors after her family saved Romeo and his buddy from the shelter. When that company closed, the woman's patients (hundreds of them) no longer had healthcare benefits...so she and a friend started their own hospice company to help them. Their non-profit business registration became a public record on the internet. When Romeo's "grandma" converted her home phone number to the office fax line...it became part of an online record that listed a business phone. By contacting that business number, the couple was able to reunite Romeo with his family. At the time this was written (April 2010), Romeo was scheduled to have a video conference via the internet with his "mom" overseas. :-) She'll be home in the fall to catch up on all that petting.
(Note: 2 days AFTER this was written, the couple received a call from a KY number...when they answer, it is Romeo's mom, calling from Japan, to say THANK YOU for saving her cat. She did, indeed, have a video call with Romeo on her Skype phone. OMG - was that the sweetest!?)
Romeo, we'll miss hearing the tinkle of your bell. We're glad you're home.
Now, what to do about Inky. No more cats. Yup.
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