Tux

Otis

Sarah

I have two miracle cats but I will start with the oldest.

Ten years ago I had this female cat (Tange) who was a replacement for a cat that I loved to death who went missing. They looked exactly the same but acted very different. Tange had a litter of four kittens. The first was an orange thing (what we call orange, short-hair tabbies. They are everywhere) we named her C-For then this black and white one, Tux, another orange thing, Ginger, and finally Smudge. I think that the name is self explanatory. By the time the kittens were six weeks old we gave Tange three of the four kittens away. The one we kept was Tux, he was the runt and I had a special bond with him. By the way, the reason that we gave Tange away was because she was just mean and I had a 1-year-old at home. She needed a family with no kids and that is what she got.

About six months later Tux came home with half of his tail hanging by a piece of skin. He seemed to be in no pain but he would walk around whacking it against things trying to get rid of the hanging piece. I took him to the vet and he needed surgery to remove what was left. At the same time I had him fixed. That was a hard thing for us to do because we were just 19 years of age with a baby trying to figure out life. We managed to come up with the $1000.00.

About a year after that on Thanksgiving he managed to get into the garbage while we were eating dinner and he ate a turkey bone, or should I say "tried". It got stuck in his throat and he had very little passage to breathe so back to the vet and another $500.00. Two years after that he became very ill and I took him into the vet again. This time he had a urinary tract disorder. He was almost in a coma. The vet told me that it was going to be $500.00-700.00 and he only had a 50% chance of pulling through. I told them to go ahead with whatever they needed to do and he lived.

Now here is the miracle part of my story. On Halloween day of 1997 I went to call my now three cats in for the night. Two of them came but not Tux. I searched everywhere and he always comes when I call. He was gone. My heart just shattered. Sarah and Otis (my other two cats) and I canvassed the area for weeks ran adds in the paper, went door to door, put up rewards, everything and he was gone. My husband figured that wild dog's got him. I didn't want to believe that. I even went door to door six months later. Still nothing. I finally faced the fact that he was gone. A year later we moved from that house and a year after that something remarkable happened. My husband was home early from work which is unusual and I made him dinner to eat in the living room which is also unusual. He decided to go channel surfing and stopped at our local SPCA show. I don't know why, we never watch it. Then a cat came on and my husband called to me "Hun you should come see this cat. It kinda look's like Tux." I responded with "I don't want to see unless it is Tux."

Next thing I know I hear a loud "HUmmum" (his mouth was full) I was startled by the sound and came running in to see what was wrong. I looked at the TV and saw my baby's paw that I use to groom every night. I flew over our railing and down the stairs to the corded phone, no time to look for the cordless, and called the SPCA. They were closed. I was crying and trembling with hope that I found my "poosydat" (my pet name for him). I did not sleep a wink all night wondering how old the show was, am I going to get him back.

The next morn I made my hubby drive me to the SPCA at 9:00AM and they open at 11:00AM. I had many pictures of him to prove that he was mine. I was hugging the pictures and pacing back and forth looking through the windows hoping that I could see him. Finally a lady came out, I think that I was driving her crazy, and she asked "Can I help you dear?" I gave her the picture and cried "This is my cat, I saw him on TV and I lost him two years ago". She offered to take the picture and look through to see if he was still there. She came back empty handed. I pleaded with her to let me look, I know my baby. She did let me under the condition that I was very quiet because they were filming another show. I raced through there and he was nowhere to be found. I really broke down crying then. I was so close but so far away. I even had the people at the SPCA crying as they were trying to console me. Finally a man spoke up "We sometimes give the older cats to a pet store here in town. Let me call". So he called and asked if they had a long haired cat there and they said yes (I could tell, his eyes lit up.) I jumped in with "Does he have half of a tail? Does he have a mustache?" The answer to both of those questions was yes and I was out of there like a bolt of lightning.

We got to the store and it is BIG. I didn't know where to look so my husband tried to find someone to ask but I couldn't wait. I raced through that store till I found the cat section. I saw him in his little cage, ran to it, didn't care what the worker at the cage next to his had to say, ripped it open and held him and cried. I think that she thought that I was crazy but I didn't care. When I was able to talk I explained the whole situation to her. She thought that it was a nice story but had to ask "What happened to his tail?"

I took him to the truck and he sat on my lap with his head under my arm all the way home purring. When we pulled into the driveway he lifted his head and started to pant with fear. This wasn't home, we moved. I got him in the front door and called the other two. They came running as always and saw him. They were happy also; I think that they missed him more that I did! They were rubbing against him and talking to him. They didn't let him out of their sight for two weeks. We had to get him shaved due to matted fur but all is back to normal now another two years later.

I don't know what happened to him but I do know now that his mission for those two years was to find home and he did it. If he could only speak English…

Miracle #2

In Tux's story I mentioned Sarah and Otis. Sarah is a long haired tortoise shell. My best friend brought her to our house and my husband fell in love with her. We let her have a litter so my son can experience childbirth. When the first kitten came, she didn't know what to do so I called the vet and he talked me through cleaning off this kitten. She watched me and figured out the rest. All of her kittens were orange things, but the first one was special. He loved my husband and vice-versa so we kept him and hubby named him Otis.

Otis is this skinny, fragile, short-hair. He is not much to look at but boy is he smart. He is our "People cat" or our "such a baby" (his pet name). He has to bath with you every time you bath and he speaks, not only speaks but has to have the last word. He say's "I Love You" and "Mama", "Dada" and "Joel".

Last November he became very sick so we took him in. He had kidney failure. They thought that it had to be antifreeze for how bad he was but I disagree because there is no way he got near antifreeze, he doesn't leave our yard. We took his lab results to another vet to see if we had any hope. That vet agreed with the first and told us that we would be lucky if he lasted a week and we should put him down. I asked if he was in severe pain and they said "NO" so I won't kill him. I wouldn't kill my kid so why my cat. Anyway, he is still with us. He got better. I took him back to the vet and they were very surprised. They said that his kidneys are still very bad but he is not ready to leave us yet. He is so skinny that when you pet him you can feel every bone but he does eat and drink and play. I don't know how long we have but I know that he is not leaving us now.

Copyright © Cassie VandeCaveye
June 18, 2001