The Story of Scruffles…

Scruffles herself doesn’t come with much of a story except for the one we created over the weekend.  It all started Friday when I arrived home from Playgroup just before noon.  In the midst of the clamoring arrival of two hungry children ready for the lunch I realized as I was arriving at the back door that there was more noise than just my own two hungry children but also the incessant noise of a crying cat.  Going in I set my bags down and went back outside.  My own children’s noise subsided as we listened for the meows coming from underneath our old deck.  We couldn’t see anybody down there and the kitty didn’t want to come out but the cat sure was crying loudly and constantly.  After several minutes of looking around and trying to lure him out I gave up and went in to make some peanut butter sandwiches.  A minute later, Kaitlyn called from the back window that she saw the cat.  I took a peek and sure enough I saw the cat trotting away along the side of the house behind mine.  He looked like he knew where he was going I decided and although he had no collar he looked fed.  Now I hadn’t ever seen this cat before… there aren’t too many cats in my neighborhood… it’s more of a dog kind of neighborhood and I probably have half the total number of cats as well as half the total number of kids around.  I didn’t give the cat too much thought after that although I did mention the experience to Rick as we headed out for our Friday night date.  We had just arrived at the airport where we like to go and watch planes when we need a cheap date when the older kids called us.  There was a cat outside crying and they were wandering around the yard with flashlights, had  had a conversation with our next door neighbor about what to do and were now feeding the cat!!!  I told them to just put a bowl of water out and get to bed.  It was a nice night and the cat would be fine.  But that cat was still there when we came home… no surprise after being fed, I figured.  And he cried outside all night.  In the morning he was desperate when I went outside to check him out.  He had no identification, was quite hungry and there were storms on the way… what to do!  This cat had a scratch under one eye, and the top part of one of his ears  looked to have been snipped off by a pair of scissors at some past point, the ear had healed so neatly.  He rubbed up against me and wanted to be loved but every time I went to pet him he nipped or scratched and I found I could only use the back of my hand to pet him on his back near his head only.  After spending a little time with him I determined to my children’s disappointment that this cat would not be at home in a house full of five kids.  He needed attention and I think he had some trust issues probably having been abused.  My neighbor thought he’d been dumped.  So he couldn’t come in the house and it was cruel to keep him out, especially with thunder storms on the way.  I lured him into our carrier with a little food and I shut the door.  Rick picked him up and with Lindsay took him to the SPCA in Sharonville.  I hoped that was the right thing to do but what else could I do?  I went the other direction with the rest of the kids and took them swimming/Y-Zone/lessons at the YMCA.  But the story doesn’t end here.  Rick was taking the cat to the SPCA instead of me, he told Lindsay on the way there, so that I wouldn’t come home with 10 more cats.  But Lindsay had never been to the SPCA before and he didn’t think she should drive all that way and not see the animals.  So they dropped this poor kitty off at receiving and went around the front to visit the cats for adoption.  It wasn’t at all what Lindsay expected.

    

Here is poor little kitty which I caught in my backyard.  I really hope he finds a good home.  In the meantime, Rick takes Lindsay to the adoption area where he’d never seen so many cats filling all the cages and rooms.  Before he knew it, there were kittens crawling all over Lindsay and he was taking pictures with his cell phone of her and them and them and her.  When I came home from the YMCA Rick was cutting a pineapple.  He started telling me about his morning experiences.  Then he started telling me how cute the cats and kittens all were and how there were SOOOOO many of them, etc.  I looked at him and he kept going till I had tears in my eyes and I had to ask him “Why are you telling me all this”?  He kept telling me all this stuff and I asked him again “Why are you telling me all this”?  Then he whipped out his cell phone and started scrolling through pictures.  Did he have any clue what he was doing?  Then we started talking about the SPCA in general and questioning if we’d done the right thing.  We came to the conclusion that we could not have kept the cat that showed up in our backyard… BUT maybe we could make room for him and he would get adopted.  Well, we’re crazy but we left the kids eating lunch and went right out there with some “Emergency Money” and decided to adopt Scruffles, a kitten barely old enough to leave her Mommy.  Rick knew this was the kitten when she fell right asleep in his hand after visiting.  And yes she is that small.  Rick will have to get pictures off his phone sometime from that experience at the shelter.  No we weren’t planning on having four cats necessarily but Rick said “it was a sign”!  I love that he loves cats as much as I do I think.   We’re both nuts so it’s OK!

MEET SCRUFFLES…

As soon as Spooky saw her his eyes lit up and he went right over to the kitten.  The kitten about jumped for joy seeing Spooky and they went right up to each other, Spooky licking the kitten all over and Scruffles purring and looking for warmth and something to EAT!!!  Spooky can be a little rough but they do seem to love each other.

Scruffles has many fans at home and has hardly been put down all day.  She doesn’t seem to mind much since she slept alone, probably for the first time, last night in a box next to my bed.  She is so tiny that she had to be down where she could still get to food, water and litter.  As soon as I called her this morning as the room began lighting up she came out of her box tipped on it’s side and she snuggled up in bed with us.  Sara and Sandy don’t seem to mind her too much, she is so tiny but Spooky is enamored with her.  Scruffles likes to chase Spooky’s tail.  And she is so funny scrambling and galloping around on the hardwood floors.

Kaitlyn’s first agenda item of the day was to find Scruffles and play.  Then she got ready for church.

Lindsay was thrilled to have another kitten to play with and care for.

Look how small this kitten is next to the cup!  I know we shouldn’t have had her on the table but she’s just so cute and tiny!  Scruffles is very sweet and quite photogenic, if I do say so myself. 

We all love Scruffles, the kitten with a story we made for her ourselves.