Stray cat of my attic cat bed and breakfast!

Wu - Chi marker in the Eaton Cemetery for a dog!

Well this has been a tough week; I finally caught the little sight-impaired cat that has been living in my attic for three years.  The cat came in with another Siamese cat who was very elderly and  died in the attic, which is how I found out that they were there.

I could never get close to her she just seemed to stare out at sounds and finally I realized that she could not really see.  When I called KIT-TEN she learned that food was being brought to her.

So I took the time to insulate the attic area she used that has a window and heat from the woodstove located in the kitchen below.  I tried unsuccessfully to get her to come closer… but no dice.  I had someone who would have adopted her …but she wouldn’t come to us.

She made friends that year with the old stray the neighbors called Curly, and for two years they lived in the attic together in the winter and she would come down and sit with him on the porch in the summer… unless something approached and then it was up the stairs to the attic room. 

To get there she had to jump through a missing windowpane, up the stairs and through another little cut out in the door.  For me to get there however, I had to go out the kitchen door, through the side yard to the garage doors, and up the stairs to her abode.

Each night I brought her (them) food, water and each time she would hide in the corner and wait until she heard me close the door and my foot hit the step, only then would she come out to eat.

Old Curly had to be put to sleep last year in the terrible hot summer…a truly aged and wise cat who had found a good retirement home in my attic. 

Then this horrible long winter came and Kitten never came downstairs.  She used the little box I put up there for her and appeared to love laying in the basket next to the little ”safe” electric heater I installed.  Then I noticed she got diarrhea.  I tried to catch her but could not, until I guess she finally knew she was in trouble.

This week she came down to the porch on her own to beg for food.  After two failed attempts at catching her, I finally got her, and took her to the vets.  Unfortunately it was too late.

And so the little stow-a-way in the attic…is gone.  This cat had been someone’s cat -she was fixed.  I assumed the two cats that had come in together were strays lost by summer people or…worse yet… dumped by someone where they had belonged to an old lady or man who was taken to a nursing home.  Yes, the friend or family says they will take care of them...but they don’t.  They just put them out with some food down and by winter they are helpless and hopeless.  It happens a lot down here. 

Wish people would understand that old cats don’t become feral after living indoors all their life…especially after being spoiled by their owners. 

So the attic is empty and this year I won’t have to worry about keeping the heat up for the upstairs cat and going out at 20 below to make the climb to the second floor attic room with food… I have boarded it up…the last occupant has left the “attic bed and breakfast.” 

I have to admit it though ...I feel terrible about her passing.