A Magical Cat Rescue (and why he loves his food)

By Ruth

Monty was either born under my porch or brought there soon after. Of all his litter he was the only one I could catch. He was not only starving he was riddled with round worms. We had to deworm him a few times to completely get rid of them. He definitely was not getting adequate nutrition during his most formative months. This is why a 12.5 pound cat (who should be about 9-10 pounds) believes he is at the point of death from lack of food. Poor baby.

He was completely wild at first. My husband made me take to him to Animal Control and I agreed because he was so wild and would not eat. Jeff relented and allowed me to go back for him after we found out that he would almost certainly be killed. The month he was brought in Milwaukee Animal Control killed 636 cats.

The staff had told me that after a seven day hold he would go to the Humane Society. Why did they not tell the truth– that they would almost certainly put him down and that as a black cat he had little to no chance of ever being adopted even if he made it out of Animal Control alive? By God’s grace I found out in time and went back for him.

He came home a lot less wild and he had figured out during his time at Animal Control that humans=food so we were able to build a relationship on that. I would feed him and he would consent to be my little furry companion, though always on his terms, of course.

His mom was eventually brought into The Cat Network with another litter of black kittens. As they grew every one of them looked exactly like Monty. She had had that litter in someone’s garage instead of under a porch, but basically the story had repeated itself. Except this time I wrote a check to pay for the mom cat to be spayed and all but one of the kittens found a home. Even the momma cat was adopted.

Monty’s half brother still lives at The Cat Network, as far as I know. I used to go over and pet him in the ways Monty likes to be petted and watch him just melt under the attention, looking at me and wondering how this stranger knew exactly how he wanted to be petted.

I do believe Monty and I were chosen to be together. Before I even met him, when I first heard there were possibly kittens outside, I thought to myself, “But he belongs in here!” It was a thought about a specific cat, a male cat, not just a general thought that all kittens deserve a good home. That sense that I knew Monty already was God whispering in my ear of what was to come because He had waited since before the beginning of the world for Monty and I to be brought together and He didn’t want to wait any longer to tell me.

When I told my sister I did not know what to call him (he came home from Animal Control with only a number) she said without hesitation, “Why don’t you call him Monty?” It was almost as if she had been pondering a name for a kitten we did not even have yet, but knew ahead of time just what to call him.

Everything was prepared for Monty to have a home with us. Even that we have a fully fenced yard that was easily turned into a secure enclosure for him and the fact that Jeff is skilled in carpentry worked in Monty’s favor. He was able to build a cat highway for Monty in our back room. So the starving, wild kitten who had a life expectancy of 1-2 years (probably much less) lives like a king today with us, seven and a half years later.

Ruth