I have been so distracted with Mike (his leg has started flaring up again) plus been pretty upset about an incident late night a few days ago that I didn’t explain much about the kitty in the narrows. I saw him being dumped. I say that because it is an orange kitten and around here, female orange cats are pretty rare.

The van that I saw,  was parked at the side of the highway in an inaccessible area- no emergency flashers and it was right after dusk. It just looked out-of-place and I was heading into town, so I slowed because I didn’t know what they might do. As I neared the van, it pulled away and I looked over on the shoulder and there was a little orange kitty! I couldn’t stop there. I was in Mike’s truck- and the shoulder is narrow and I would have been blocking traffic and being a danger to other motorists. The place where I could safely turn around  was up ahead a few miles, and by the time I did the U-turn and went back the kitten was gone! I did pull into the turnout and put food out (22 degrees that night) and I called till I was hoarse but he was gone. There is a half of a trail leading up into the hills and trees and blackberry bushes and all kinds of bushes up there- but no kitty.

I went out the next morning, drove the Narrows looking for him. I didn’t see him (made several passes) So I went home, got an insulated cat box, plastic dishes (no water dishes the water would have frozen in 5 minutes with this really bad cold snap we seem to be in at the moment. I did add water to the cat food and left out a trail of dry as well leading to the cat box.

I started searching again at night- and saw him each time, only at night. Because the turnout isn’t visible until you were right on it, and before you get there is a blind curve. I missed the turnout several times. Going up to the street where I could do a safe U-turn- same result, by the time I got back he was gone. A few nights I saw him just headed down the side of the highway- unfortunately, he was on the other side of the highway then me. It was frustrating. I knew he was out there- I knew he was scared and I knew he needed help. I couldn’t use a trap- it would be dangerous to park there and monitor the trap and just leaving it there, no matter what we did to insulate it- once that wire started to freeze that kitten would be in dire straits.

Three nights ago, I got a call from a woman who faithfully donates two bags of cat chow to our sanctuary every month since our other source dumped us. She had found a kitty who was pretty sick and she didn’t have the funds to help her (guess what?Neither do we!) and wondered if we could take her to the vet and get her fixed and evaluated. I told her yes and left in five minutes.

Approaching the Narrows, I said “God wouldn’t it be nice to see the kitten tonight on the right side of the highway so I could try and grab him?”

Well, sure enough, I saw him sitting by the side of the road in the weeds in a place where you don’t have a buffer lane to get off the highway (it’s near a guardrail) So, instead of going up to that street and doing a U turn. I pulled into the Center lane, went back a bit and figured I could safely turn the truck around if there was no traffic and not end up in the ditch. I figured wrong! I was headed for the ditch, and so I braked reversed prayed and then I hit my emergency flashers and was off the highway enough to be able to creep up to the turnoff which was a little bit ahead.

Then I looked over to the center lane, and there was a car there. It was keeping pace with me. And I am thinking, Oh, God he must have come around the blind curve, seen my brake lights and reverse lights and had to do evasive measures to not hit me. I was afraid to get out of the truck-figuring he was going to road rage against me, so I just sat there- watching him and watching the kitten who was still sitting in the weeds ahead of my truck.

Finally, I was getting ready to just go to the turnoff when lights, blue and red flashed from this car in the center lane, he reversed whipped behind me. He comes roaring up the truck “What the devil do you think you are doing?”  So I told him the story and when I was done, I looked over (kitty was STILL there!) He looked at me and said: “You did ALL of that over a CAT?” (I didn’t appreciate how he said Cat either) But I told him, “Yes I did!”

He asked for my license told me to stay in the truck, put the windows up and keep the engine running to stay warm because he didn’t want me to freeze and he would be back in a few minutes. I am sitting there, the kitten, God, he was right there. I could of opened up the door, gotten out scooped this baby up and got him safe. And I couldn’t move. So what I did I took my seat belt off- slid over, opened the passenger door. I had canned food on my seat, I popped the lid and I called really loud my kitty call hoping he would jump into the warm truck. I also turned the engine off. The kitten didn’t move. 🙁

The cop comes back, this time on the passenger’s side asking why the dickens (I’m softening the language a bit) 🙂 my passenger door was opened in freezing weather. I turned on my lights pointed ahead of me into the weeds where the kitten was lit up like a snowball with his spotlight and said “That’s why.” He looked at me like I had just crawled out from under a rock and this is what he said he to me:

“You did all this for a cat! You almost caused a multivehicle collision. The driver behind you had to slam on his brakes, when he did, he almost slid into my patrol car and I had to go into the incoming traffic lane to get out of danger!”

I was stunned, rattled started to cry apologize. What I didn’t say is that I didn’t see anything. No lights, didn’t hear brakes slam on, skids going on all that. I have really good hearing. I would have heard something, but I was in tears and all I wanted to do was scoop up the kitten and go home. When I asked him if I could- he looked at me like he wished he could burn me to the ground and said:

“What you can do, is drive into town to a brightly lit establishment and make a legal U-turn and go home. But, I leave you with one thought. What would it feel like for you to have to go see my wife and explain to her that I was dead because of a cat? I am an animal lover, but I will never sacrifice human life over a cat!”

So I drove away, he followed me leaving that kitten in the cold and berating myself for being so stupid. Haven’t seen the kitten since and have been out so many times at night looking. I hope and pray that what happened that some of the looky loos that night also saw the kitten when they passed “the bust” and came back and got him. Because I had spotted him every night and now he is not there. That’s what I pray happen and not that he figured out he had help so close and another human harmed him and he went up into the forest to sleep. I don’t know.

I was feeling pretty low about myself and I found out a few days later that what he told me- never happened! It NEVER happened. He made it up- the woman that I told used to be married to a cop and when I told her the whole story she just started laughing! She said, if I thought about it- had it been true- I wouldn’t have gotten just a warning. I would have been hauled off, or given a ticket. She said he was trying to scare me (he did a good job of that).

She said if it had been her, after he told me he was going to just warn me, she would have told him that she was going to get out of the truck, telling him first she was an unarmed female. She was going to go over to the weeds, pick the  baby up and get him safe. If he wanted to slap handcuffs on her and then explain to his superiors why she was in handcuffs- more power to him. Gee, I wish I had the backbone to have done that very thing.

So I abandon the search. It’s just not safe in that area to try and pull off without something bad happening. And yes,  the cop lied, but he was also telling me how it could have happened.We are not in summer or spring- we have a Arctic front that has hung on for weeks.  Plus the kitten isn’t there anymore.

(Sorry this was long-winded it was pretty convoluted if you think about it.)

God Bless All of You This Holiday Season. Mike’s youngest boy is coming to stay for a week to surprise his Dad (should be interesting he doesn’t like cats) So it has been a bit of a stressful week so far. I just pray the kitty came out ok and all of you have a safe, sane, lovely Christmas and New Years!