By Ruth aka Kattaddorra
More sad news from Kays Hill today. Etty suffered a massive fit last night and her life couldn’t be saved.
Her adoptive family must be devastated, but some comfort is that she had a happy time in her new home after having quite a tragic life.
When we first saw her she was hanging around outside hungry and very nervous and bad tempered, we couldn’t get close to her, we just had to put her a dish of food down and walk away.
We didn’t know if she was a stray or had a bad home as she only came around once a day.
Then one day she appeared to be walking very badly and as I approached her she growled and hissed and I saw she had on a huge thick studded dog collar and one of her front legs was trapped through it, I grabbed her before she could run away and we cut that horrible collar off with scissors.
Despite asking around we found no owner which was a relief really as they were obviously not fit to have a cat in their power, she could have been run over or savaged by a dog or abused by a cruel person when she was so helpless in that heavy collar.
She moved in that day with our ex neighbour and her rescue cats, at that time we were helping out there and although Etty grumbled and hissed and lashed out for months at all of us and all the other cats, she established her domain in the bathroom. She didn’t want to go outside at all in the cat run we built, she seemed content to have a warm bed and food. She would climb into her cat bed on a stalk and snooze for hours.
Sadly she ended up at Kays Hill Animal Sanctuary with the other cats of the family when our neighbour didn’t return home one day.
She was there for quite a while, then had the chance of a home, but it fell through because her prospective adopter was very ill and we thought her one and only chance had been and gone.
But Kays Hill worked one of their miracles and she was eventually rehomed where she settled in happily and enjoyed the remainder of her life.
We have no idea how old she was, she didn’t look to be very old when we first met her, it’s good that she eventually had some happiness in her life but sad that it was quite short.
I was very sad to read that Etty has died,she was a beautiful cat,she looks very sad in the big picture and a bit annoyed in the others.
It made me cry that at last she got a home where she was loved but hasn’t had a long life there,it must be horrible for her adopters to have lost her.
I’m so sad for you too Leanne from reading your stories I know how much you care for your animals at Kayshill.
R.I.P Etty and your sisters and brothers who have died since that person betrayed them and I hope the ones still living are happy for a long time to come.
i was so sad to recieve a text from a friend of both ours and etty’s family yesterday morning, telling me about etty. so soon after gerty it brings back the sadness of all of it. all those cats taken in to be loved and cared for and then when they felt they were home they had to be caught, traumatised, frightened and taken off to various rescue centres. split up from friends, how terrified those cats we took in were that night we went for them. how long it took for them to begin to feel safe again. the only good thing is that if etty had to suffer that fit at least she was in her home were she was loved and cared for and where she felt safe. she at least died surrounded by the people who loved her and not locked away, forgotten and uncared for. it makes me so angry that these cats ever ended up in the situation they did. it was through no fault of their own. etty could be such a grump, but deep down she was a lovely cat who just wanted to be loved, at least, in the end, she got that. rip kidda.
She looks incredibly sweet in the photos. It’s lucky she had a period of calm and peace in her life – it would have been more tragic if she hadn’t but it’s still very sad. She has a wonderful face if not a bit melancholy looking. Thankfully she had a familly in her life who cared for her but that doesn’t make anything easier for anybody it’s just an important factor. It must be very hard to lose a cat who has finally started to enjoy life. One could only hope they get more time to enjoy – but any time is better than no time. Thanks for sharing the story of Etty.
Etty was quite a character when we knew her during the time she spent with our neighbour, she used to pretend she was grumpy but really she loved attention, she must have had a hard life before then and she still had to wait a long time for a proper loving home, I’m glad she had some time being happy and cared for before she had to go so suddenly, she was beautiful. RIP Etty. x
Etty looks to be mid teens in that beautiful poster effigy you made for us, in her honor and memory. I’m so sad to hear of the troubles she went through. What a trooper. I think of Sour Puss. I re-domesticated him back in the 1990’s. He barely had a place on him that I could touch without injury. He would rub up against me and then bite at me due to the pain. It took 7 long months to gain his trust. In the end of our time together (always outdoors on the back porch of our trailer home) he was a my trusted confidant and he never had a problem with the other cats. Just us humans. He finally was able to find his forever home on his own. I cried when I say him go in his new home. I wish I had the pictures of him. They spoiled before I developed them. He was an Exotic short-hair. Peppered grey ticked tabby. Never much for heights. I had never seen a cat so brachycephalic like him before. He looked like he’d sucked a lemon. Thus we called him Sour Puss. He actually treated me much better than my ex ever did. I’m glad he was my friend.
As some of my friends and I have started doing….
I light a symbolic candle in honor of this fallen cat of undetermined age, but of certain beauty.
i (the small i is the candle…)
RIP Etty.
Run free…
Thanks for this story Ruth. It seems Etty lived a pretty sad life. It wasn’t that great was it? There were some good moments though. I feel sadness for her. A lot of domestic cats have similar lives. Well done Kays Hill for making her life better.