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As the Grande Dame of Pasado’s, Lily has earned the right to be the “Dear Abby” of cat advice.
Here is Lily's story from our Founder...
I first met this little girl at a suburban home. The woman showed me to a building on her
lovely grounds that she had created just for rescued cats. She was, and is, one of the few
angels who walk this earth.
We entered inside and cats were everywhere; but one brown tabby skidded up to me, dragging
her back legs all the way. She was the quickest to get to me and talked all the way.
“REER – REER – REER!” She was loud, that little girl. And boy did she ask for attention.
“This is Lily,” the woman smiled. The best that I can recall, Lily was this woman’s charge
because not many people would take this kind of kitty on. Born from a mother who had distemper,
Lily’s littermates had perished. But Lily made it, with one defect: she was paralyzed from the
mid-spine, down. She was left incontinent and without motor function in her hind quarters.
“But,” the woman said, “she doesn’t know anything is wrong.” Boy was she right.
It became evident to me that this woman could take on many more precious rescues, if Lily
(who was a handful due to her condition) found another home. So Lily, came home to Pasado’s.
I lived in a trailer on Pasado’s sanctuary grounds at the time. I was afforded one room and shared the rest of the house with a menagerie: death row dogs I rescued from shelter euthanasia every week, cats, and a turnstile of chickens, turkeys, a lamb, and even a calf.
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I arrived with Lily, toted inside a cat carrier. I set her down on the vinyl floor, opened the
door, and out she came!
“REER – REER – REER!” she flew across the floor, dragging her back-end behind, and peeing all the way.
She shot up the tallest cat tree, to the very top, and proudly positioned herself and started surveying
her new digs. I got out the spray bottle of cleaner and paper towels – it would be the first of certainly
thousands of wipe-ups performed on her behalf over the next ten years.
Lily was home, for good!
Misty’s Kitty City is home to many cats – rescued, lost, or because they too possess a malady that
makes them unadoptable. But Lily, well, she’s special.
Over time Lily developed more strength in her backend and instead of dragging her legs, she began
to hop like a bunny. But over the last ten years one thing has never changed – Lily’s ability to
pick the tallest cat tree and scale it like a mountain climber. It’s hysterical to watch her: she’s
got Olympic strength in her front legs that pull up her dangling legs. Oh, and that incontinence
thing? Well, that’s never changed, either.
When I first gave up a former life of lovely
mail-order, matching sheets (and many other things that
would never matter again), I moved
in with many animals (even more than I already shared in my “normal”
former life). I fed all the animals each morning and cleaned the barns
until noon. I’d shower and start
the office work, which included learning how to respond to the first of probably thousands of animal
abuse and neglect calls to come over the years. By nighttime, I slept soundly. But not before Lily would
hop on my bed and, without fail, start peeing. And those lovely mail-order matching sheet sets? Well now
they were a tie-dyed jumble of giant bleach stains. A perfect looking bed was forfeited for so much more.
"As the
Grande Dame of Pasado’s, Lily has earned the
right to be the “Dear Abby” of cat advice.
Enjoy."
~ Susan Michaels, Founder
Help Pasado's Safe Haven continue its effort
of saving special lives like Lily.
(don't forget
to ask your employer to match your donation)
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