Angel was a barn cat. She's spent her whole life as a barn cat... fighting for her right to stay alive, day to day. Fighting illness, dogs, and humans. Constantly being bred by the local tomcat, never getting a break.
Here's Angel the first day I got her home.
If you didn't know any better, you'd say she was dead.
2 years old, and hardly bigger than my hand.
Emmaciated Angel.
Here's her story, as told on my LJ:
A friend took me to her step-fathers barn (he rents it from somebody).. because she wanted me to see the kitties. I've seen plenty o' healthy, strappin' barn kitties in my day, so I figured it wouldn't hurt.
Wrong-o!
There were 5 cats total (that we saw), 3 adults, 2 kittens.
We show up, look around.. my roomie squeals and points to a black cat comming around the corner. So ofcourse I squeal louder (I lub black kitties). I comment on how small she is, and ask her age. They say two years. I was like.. riiight. She's as big as my roomie's 4mth old kittens.
Anyhoo, we're looking around.. and I notice all the cats (save the one 2yr old) have noses full of snot and dirt. Infact, one cat sounds so bad, it's like someone is shaking a can full of marbels. You can even FEEL her breathing. She's also losing all the hair on her neck. It was disgusting. So I make a pretty much split second decision to rescue Angel, the only non-disgustingly sick one outta the bunch. I pick her up to give her a lil bathie in the hose, and notice her nipples are pokey-outy. Sign of pregnancy, I know that much. So I say this aloud, and the "friend" from work says "Oh! Good. If she has kittens, bring them back here. We're running out of cats."
Yes... she said it. "we're running out of cats".
I quickly say "Nah, I'll keep them all." and my roomie pipes up "Kelly is really good at finding amazing homes for animals. She'll probably re-home them to nice families".
I was sooo mad... anyhoo, we get her home, and I have to bathe her AGAIN, because she's still covered in feces and vomit, etc. When I was done, I picked her up in a towel to dry her off, and she leaned right into my chest, purring and doing "comfy paws" on my chest. It hurt.. but was too cute for me to care.
She's never stopped purring since she got here, I swear it.
Now folks, look what a weeks worth of feeding proper food, and having fresh water and love can do.
Here's just a few of the adorable pictures I've gotten of her in the week she's been here.
And here's two of my Zaq (7 yrs), for comparison with Angel's first day pics (and 'cause he's so sexy
)...
