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Last updated on July 5th, 2024 at 10:58 am
I have some sad news to share. It looks like we have lost Sally. Even though she wasn’t my cat it’s still sad to share this.
My parents were out walking yesterday evening and they happened to see the animal control truck. They were able to ask the animal services person if they were picking up a dog or a cat. It seems a cat had been hit by a car. The worker told my parents it was gay and white.
We haven’t seen Sally for a few hours so you can figure out what happened.
The thing is I didn’t know she crossed what would be a main street that divides my street in half. I noticed she looked a bit sad earlier this week. I figured she wasn’t feeling well or maybe she was getting ready to go back to her original home.
She’d been distancing herself from Leo and Cleo as well as Olive over the last few days too. She didn’t seem to be so worried about their whereabouts as much. So maybe she was getting ready to leave us. I can’t say.
She showed up one day
One day in February she just showed up in my backyard. Willie had disappeared for about a week then she came back home. Not soon after Sally arrived.
We saw that she was young. At best guess, she was probably about 6 months old at the most. To our surprise in March, she had two kittens in our garage. I posted her on the Ring app to see if I could find her owners but I wasn’t successful. We waited until her kittens were a bit older to take her to the shelter.
Again to my surprise about a week later she was back at my house. I guess she had a microchip. Her owners had her fixed. I figured she lived near me or even on my street because she came running through our cat door we have in the fence. She ran to the garage and called for her kittens. it broke my heart.
The Sally dilemma
She stayed
We started to call her Sally just because she needed a name we could keep calling her hey tabby cat. My mom named her. We didn’t really want to get attached to her but she was so sweet. Since we weren’t able to find her family we just let her hang out here.
She was very loving and grateful to have a home here with us. She enjoyed the company of our cats (for the most part) and took to playing with Cleo and Leo.
over the summer she even started to come inside and spend time with us or just to get out of the heat. She was good and even knew how to use the litter box. Her favorite place to nap was a box we have for them in the living room.
A mother’s love
Even though Sally lost her kittens (hopefully to good homes.) she started to play with Cleo and Leo. She even watched them for Stache so she could wander off and rest for a while. Yes they had it out sometimes but they made friends. Once Stache felt Cleo and Leo were old enough she left in Sally’s care.
She was so happy to have babies again. She took such good care of them. Cleo and Leo were about a week or two older than her own kittens.
Even this week she would take time to groom Cleo and call them to make sure they were okay. Leo has always been a bit more independent but Cleo was Sally’s shadow for a bit.
I liked to joke that she loved her penguin kids with all her little tabby heart.
an update on the Spicy Kittens and Sally
She started to care for Olive too in recent weeks.
She knew how to defend herself
She was small but mighty. At times she would growl at some of the neighborhood cats. She also was very wary of some Tom’s as well.
She was also willing to defend her adopted babies too. She was very good at throwing paws as I like to call it. She would smack some of the cats going by if she felt they were too close her Leo and/or Cleo.
It’s funny
It’s funny how you can come to love a cat so quickly. I knew she wasn’t mine but she did find a way into our hearts and home. She also was very demanding and wanted you to know she was there.
a life cut short
I guessed her age in August and figured she could share a birthday with Jack and Willie (August 13th.) She would have been about a year and one month old. But even in that short time, she brought joy to our lives.
Now comes the hard part to let Cleo, Leo, Olive, and the rest know that she won’t be coming back. I think they know something is wrong but can’t figure out what. So far none of them have been calling for her.
We’ll miss you, Sally.
