Dulcinea

[pyrs4life54]

Dulcinea had a hard life to start with. While out walking the dogs one night I noticed that I could hear a kitten meowing, I put if off as a bird as there are some birds around here that sound suspiciously like cats but the next day I could still hear it. I could tell that the cries were coming from the trees in front of my dads house, so off I went in search of something I wasn't even sure I would find.

I followed the noise to an old area where I used to play, back when I had all the time in the world and would pretend that my dogs and I were stranded on an island where civilization was nowhere to be found, that is until my dad called me for pizza. Undereath a wood pile there was a hole. I could tell that was where the kitten was. Without giving it much thought until after the fact I layed down on my stomach and reached my hand down. I don't know what kind of animal dug this whole but I was in all the way up to my shoulder and still could not feel a kitty. It didn't cross my mind until then that I had no idea if anything else was down there.

Occasionally the kitten would come close enough for me to bearly feel it's head and then dash off. I was now determined to get it out. It's meow was growing hoarse but it would always reply when I meowed to it.

One hour and a can of cat food later I had the kitten coaxed up to wear I could grab it. The only part I could reach was her head, and so that was how she was pulled out of the hole. Not the best way, but effective.

Once I had it in my arms I noticed two things, it was a calico, black with gold-orange spots and it was bleeding. She had been attacked by something, her face was torn from her lip to above her eye and one of her bottom teeth was missing. Needless to say this endeared me to her more. She couldn't not have been over 8 weeks old. I don't know how she ended up out there, if someone dropped her, or a annoyed mother cat was looking wean her but I knew she had foud a home.

I took her back to the house and began to give her a bath. Much to my surprise she began to pur as I washed the dirt and blood from her coat. Never before and never again have I had a cat purr in the water.

We've bottle-fed many kittens in the past so we had a box that was all made up, complete with a chicken wire lid, and windows in the side so she could see out. That is where she spent much of her time as we nursed her back to health.

At first we did not know if it was going to work out to keep her, our other cat detested her with a passion, something I had expected but had hoped to avoid nonetheless. The kitten who we named, Dulcinea after a woman on Star Trek Enterprise would also freak out when we took her outside. Going into a cat's equilvalent of a panic attack, fluffing her fur and tail and then curling into a ball wherever she was and refusing to move. There were many times she got like this in the house and we would spend hours looking for her.

I knew she wouldn't be able to be a house cat, my dad was allergic to cats in the house, as kittens they had no effect yet because they did not shed. Slowly we began acclimiating her to the outdoors and she grew to like it and thankfully our other cat as well.

Later on she had kittens and our other female cat stayed by her side through the birth and helped her raise the kitties, laying in the box with them and watching them while Dulci went out to hunt. Dani (our other cat) would even bring back food to Dulci so she wouldn't have to go anywhere.

A few months ago Dulcinea disappeared. We do not know what happened to her but it is likely that she will not be coming back. I've had farm cats enough to know that when females disappear they do not usually come back. We hope that maybe someone picked her up but the highway that is right off our lane that has claimed the lives of so many of our cats is always there, present in the back of our minds. We have looked and never found her, she was there one day and gone the next. As much as I would love to see her again I am slowly resigning myself to the fact that I might not but however, that does not mean I will give up hope.

I have been wanting to write a tribute to her for a while now although I was hoping I would have had more time as this one feels rushed but at least I have it done. I write a tribute to all of my animals when they leave my life, it's one of my ways of coping. Here is a picture of Dulci with her kitties and Dani.

[PepperGirl]

Hi Nessa,


Poor Dulci! You guys are awesome for taking her in! I am so sorry to hear she dissapired... I hope she is happy and safe.

She was really really pretty:)

-Ali

[pyrs4life54]

Thank you