COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL JANUARY 4, 2017
7A
Surviving against all odds
A journey from dog lover to cat owner
R
enee freely admits that
her family is made
up of “strictly dog
people,” who, in the past, have
adopted smart-serious, rescue
dogs. Well, that is, they used
to be “dog people” until Mimsy
wandered into their lives.
Three years ago while holi-
daying at her parents’ cabin,
500 miles north of their home in
northern Canada, they learned
of three adorable kittens, born
to a feral cat, in the woodshed
of their parents’ summer lake
cabin. When Renee and her
11 and 13-year-old daughters
emerged from their vehicle af-
ter a very long drive, it was a
thrilling welcome when the two
fl uffy, little orange kittens and a
black and white kitten ran into
their enthusiastic arms.
That night there was a very
loud thunderstorm. The girls
ran out to the shed to “save” the
kittens from being scared.
Renee purrs-onally thought,
“It was their plan all along to
sleep with the little fur-babies!”
In the morning, the skinny,
worried, soaking wet, matted,
and quite ugly, mother cat was
calling for her babies. Paws-
ibly she was wet because she
spent the stormy night searching
for her little family.
Renee and her daughters
could not stand seeing the all-
alone, starving mother cat. “We
fed her,” said a kind-hearted
Renee, “and after she ate, the
‘wild feral cat’ fell asleep in my
youngest child’s lap.”
Renee and her concerned
daughters then knocked on ev-
ery one of the neighbors’ doors
to ask who owned the felines or
if anyone knew their hiss-story.
“We were told that the cat’s
heartless family had moved
away, prior to winter setting
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in,” said Renee, “and left her
behind! She became pregnant,
and had kittens while trying
to survive with temperatures
dipping to 40 below. The lake
cabins were long empty for the
winter months, so no one was
there to feed them. It is a mira-
cle that they survived against all
odds and didn’t starve to death
when the snow arrived. We
were amazed that this dedicated
mother cat was raising three
healthy kittens!”
Renee knew one thing for
sure, she could not abandon the
cats and have them starve or
breed relentlessly over the win-
ter. Cats and dogs can become
pregnant as early as four months
of age, and produce offspring
every two months. They were
on a mission to fi nd homes for
the mother cat and her triplets
to avoid fi nding an ever growing
feline herd the next summer.
Because her parents live in a
“no pets” building, it was out of
the question for them to adopt
any pets. Renee’s family has a
very busy lifestyle so they were
not looking to add a cat, and
they had Kooteni, a Shepherd
mix. “So we drove the cat fam-
ily to a pet shelter,” said Renee,
“and said a tearful goodbye.”
The shelter estimated the
mother cat was barely nine-
months-old and the kittens were
three-months-old. This means
that if you add on two months
for gestation, the cat had con-
ceived her kittens as a baby her-
self, at four months of age. It is
hard to understand that anyone
would abandon a kitten at a lake
cabin in the woods with a hard
winter approaching to survive
or starve on its own!
A responsible Renee checked
in on the kittens until they were
adopted. Not surprising, their
exhausted, stressed mother fell
ill with a respiratory infection,
and she was labeled un-adopt-
able.
“I couldn’t get the mother cat
out of my mind,” said Renee.
“Before leaving the shelter us
mothers had locked eyes, and
I promised her that everything
would by okay. But now would
it? Her future looked bleak and
I felt responsible. I asked the
shelter if I could adopt her, and
they agreed that if I paid for her
spaying I could have her. My fa-
ther picked up the cat and drove
her 500 miles to her new home
and our waiting large dog!
Our names honor us, so we
wanted this cat’s brave spirit
to have a meaningful one. We
chose Mimsy, which is Greek
for ‘little mother’. She’s grown
into a great cat, who has become
a beautiful, strong and confi -
dent pet. She fast became best
friends with Kooteni and bears
an uncanny resemblance to her.
Both have matching long-hair
tortoiseshell colored fur coats
that camoufl ages into our living
room chair.”
Mimsy thinks she is a dog!
When her family calls her, she
comes running. When some-
one rings the doorbell, she runs
to the front door and insists on
being vigorously petted like a
dog, and she purr-furs sleeping
in bed with them.
“The funniest behavior be-
tween our pets,” said Renee,
“is that Mimsy enjoys being
groomed by Kooteni! Kooteni
holds Mimsy down, with her
big front paw, and then licks
her all over. The fi rst time we
saw this we jumped to Mimsy’s
defense and told Kooteni to
‘Stop!’ But Mimsy nuzzled in
to Kooteni, rolled over onto her
back, and insisted that Kooteni
continue, which she did and does
to this day. Mimsy loves being
‘mothered’ by Kooteni.
Our family admires Mimsy be-
cause she is a survivor, a strong-
dedicated mother, and a trusting,
friendly feline. She has blended
easily into our family and found
her way into our hearts.”
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