In The Heat

            The summer of 2012 was a hot one.  It went down in the record books.  Across the nation, our state included, saw record consecutive days with the heat hitting over one hundred.  The first thing that crossed my mind was how do cats make it in this heat?  I found the comfort of my house with air-conditioning.   But a stray cat you can’t catch and bring indoors.  And so, I continued to feed them and keep fresh water out.  But for those cats out there that did not have this, I wondered about their survival.  It was among my few I fed and watered, I would see the heat take a victim.  It sure hit close to home!

            Joyce was one of Likes ‘Em Green’s kittens.  The cat, Likes ‘Em Green, was given the name by me.  The name came from a neighbor who abandoned her.  She lost her home.  The neighbor, knowing I had a garden, yelled from her house one day wanting some tomatoes.

            “I likes ‘em green,” she yelled.

            After the neighbor lost her house, she left the mother cat behind.  The mother cat moved in under the house next door.  She began immediately coming to our house to eat.  Then she would go back to the house next door.  She had litter after litter that would soon wind up eating at our house also.  Because the cat had been abandoned, I named her from the last words yelled by that neighbor.  She became Likes ‘Em Green.

            It was two years ago that two kittens from her latest litter came to eat.  I named the female kitten Joyce and the male kitten Neil.  Neil would wonder off and became victim to poisoning.  When taking him to the Humane Society barely alive, they verified poisoning.  But Joyce was a home body.  She never made it out of the two back yards.  From the time she came to eat, we could tell things weren’t right with Joyce.  When walking, she never got faster than a snail’s pace.  I would have to watch my step so as not to step or trip on her.  She was constantly gagging for air.  When she tried to sit down, she never made it to a full sitting position.  And in those two years, male cats never came near her.  There was no doubt in our minds that she had suffered birth defect or something had harmed her in some manner.  She would eat, but never before the other cats.  She ate and drank enough to keep her alive.  Being she was a stray, we never tried to pick her up as we probably would only add to her pain.  We really felt there was nothing we could do for her except let her live out her life in what comfort we could give her.  She was never lacking for food or water.  Eventually she left entirely the house next door and moved in our back yard.  She did nothing except lay around where she ate and drank.  Little kittens would try to play with her, but finally they moved on to another cat. 

            “I really don’t think Joyce will make it in the heat,” said my son.

            I was optimistic and replied, “She made it through winter.”  Last year was not a bad winter, but the previous one was.  I had to believe Joyce would make it.

            But the heat got her.  I found her barely off our patio.  On one of the hottest days, Joyce had passed away.  She was buried under the pear tree in our back yard.  It is hard not to get attached to a cat you see every day.  We miss her!