Well, I know most of you don’t know me, but I am a full out Sugar Glider rescuer.
But my story is about the first animal I have ever rescued; a black cat named Eightball. He was an inspiration for me to begin with.
A while ago, maybe 10 years or so, I used to live in a small town; well, not small like your typical every-one-knows-each-other with the small town wannabe cops, but small enough to where it was a pretty close stitched community, ANYway, we used to live by these trashy neighbors…the kind of neighbors that had a couch and piles of junk laying on their front porch, and about a half acre of “back yard” behind them…funny thing is they always used to hold parties over at their house hen they mowed their lawn; so needless to say their grass was usually long, and attracted rats from miles away.
Well one day I happened to glance over and watch these people get out of their car, and dump out this scrawny looking black kitten out. This little Kitten was merely skin and bones, with soft green eyes that looked as if they could pierce right through anyone that looked at it. The kitten, naturally, pounced away from the busy, loud street, and found it’s way into the neighbor’s old, falling down shed, with plenty of holes between the rotting dark brown wood for the kitten to crawl into. :?
Well, as a younger kid, and animal lover, I followed and called for the kitty, but he was too scarred to come to me. I remember watching the Lion King and how Zazu the pesky bird that acted as the “nanny” for Simba, the little cub, once say “Uncle Uncle” to Scar, so I started calling the little cat by that, and surprisingly, the cat responded enough to where he would come out of the shed and glare at me, but never anything more.
A week went by and I ran out of things to do or say to this skinnier-growing-daily little furr butt, so I did what any desperate kid would do; I consulted with my dad. We *happened* to have an old, rusted rabbit cage that was about to go in the garbage and we came up with the idea to attach a string to the door of the rabbit cage, and hide behind a bush, so when the little kitty came to smell the fresh tuna and bowl of water we laid out for him, we would pull the string, which would then shut the door of the cage…and we did just that! It only took a mere 45 minutes of waiting *patiently* behind a bush for the kitty to fall for the trap. 8O
The funny thing was, and what I found was ironic, was this cat went strait for the water, and didn’t touch the food. We took his age inside and kept him in there as a quarantine. I learned so much from this rescue that I would learn to use later on with my Sugar Gliders. I learned that with patience and a lot of time, and the right touch, anyone can turn a frightened, rejected, or lunging animal into a tame, cooperative one. And I did just that with this stray kitty we named Eightball, as he was a pure black King. Eightball was always attracted to water. When he grew up he taught himself to open the bathroom door and jump in the bath with people! That’s why we always had to fill the sink up with water when we took baths or showers so eight ball wouldn’t jump in with us, lol. And I must say, for all of the cats I have owned in my life, the strayed, rejected, and unwanted cat turned out to be my most favorite and life altering! If you haven’t rescued a cat, or any other animal before, I would suggest doing it. :arrow:
But my story is about the first animal I have ever rescued; a black cat named Eightball. He was an inspiration for me to begin with.
A while ago, maybe 10 years or so, I used to live in a small town; well, not small like your typical every-one-knows-each-other with the small town wannabe cops, but small enough to where it was a pretty close stitched community, ANYway, we used to live by these trashy neighbors…the kind of neighbors that had a couch and piles of junk laying on their front porch, and about a half acre of “back yard” behind them…funny thing is they always used to hold parties over at their house hen they mowed their lawn; so needless to say their grass was usually long, and attracted rats from miles away.
Well one day I happened to glance over and watch these people get out of their car, and dump out this scrawny looking black kitten out. This little Kitten was merely skin and bones, with soft green eyes that looked as if they could pierce right through anyone that looked at it. The kitten, naturally, pounced away from the busy, loud street, and found it’s way into the neighbor’s old, falling down shed, with plenty of holes between the rotting dark brown wood for the kitten to crawl into. :?
Well, as a younger kid, and animal lover, I followed and called for the kitty, but he was too scarred to come to me. I remember watching the Lion King and how Zazu the pesky bird that acted as the “nanny” for Simba, the little cub, once say “Uncle Uncle” to Scar, so I started calling the little cat by that, and surprisingly, the cat responded enough to where he would come out of the shed and glare at me, but never anything more.
A week went by and I ran out of things to do or say to this skinnier-growing-daily little furr butt, so I did what any desperate kid would do; I consulted with my dad. We *happened* to have an old, rusted rabbit cage that was about to go in the garbage and we came up with the idea to attach a string to the door of the rabbit cage, and hide behind a bush, so when the little kitty came to smell the fresh tuna and bowl of water we laid out for him, we would pull the string, which would then shut the door of the cage…and we did just that! It only took a mere 45 minutes of waiting *patiently* behind a bush for the kitty to fall for the trap. 8O
The funny thing was, and what I found was ironic, was this cat went strait for the water, and didn’t touch the food. We took his age inside and kept him in there as a quarantine. I learned so much from this rescue that I would learn to use later on with my Sugar Gliders. I learned that with patience and a lot of time, and the right touch, anyone can turn a frightened, rejected, or lunging animal into a tame, cooperative one. And I did just that with this stray kitty we named Eightball, as he was a pure black King. Eightball was always attracted to water. When he grew up he taught himself to open the bathroom door and jump in the bath with people! That’s why we always had to fill the sink up with water when we took baths or showers so eight ball wouldn’t jump in with us, lol. And I must say, for all of the cats I have owned in my life, the strayed, rejected, and unwanted cat turned out to be my most favorite and life altering! If you haven’t rescued a cat, or any other animal before, I would suggest doing it. :arrow:
