On Feb. 3, 2017, we received a phone call from a woman fit to be tied. She had a cat for about a year, but he wasn’t getting along with her small dog, or her other cat. Now, to make matters worse (according to her) he had the “nasties.” Some sort of skin infection and a gooey eye. She sounded like she was at the end of her rope with him- so out the door I went.

Her small “friendly” dog that this cat didn’t like, met me at the door and tried to bite my ankles! Some sort of terrier mix no obedience training, spoiled to the max. She showed me where she kept “the bad kitty.” he was living in a cage on the dresser- no food, no water, no litterpan, just newspapers spread out underneath the cage. I wanted to scream at the woman, but I didn’t. Instead, I just gathered this black kitty with the “nasty eye” into my carrier and we soon  on the way to the vets.

Turned out that Jet had not been neutered. He was suffering from a fungus infection underneath his belly and legs that was not ringworm. he had a bad UTI, URI, he was a mess. he was a year old. When they cleaned up his eye to see what was underneath, it was not good. His eye was shrunken down into his head- misshapen and he was blind in that eye. The vet said that either he was born that way or had been injured and not treated. They also detected a heart murmur but said it could be from stress and pain.

Later on, we would also find out he had giardia. They decided not to neuter him right away until some of his issues cleared and his fever went away. I brought him home.

As luck would have it, prior to his arrival, I had adopted out Hanna to a woman in Eugene. Her name is Robin. Hanna was not fitting into the family and Robin called asking if she could bring Hanna back to me. Because my time was so full of taking care of Jet-Eye, I agreed. Generally, I would pick up a cat that didn’t work out. That was just the rule, but God intervened because in that transfer back to me, Robin caught a glimpse of Jet-Eye and fell instantly in love. She adopted him a week later.

I received a letter yesterday, informing me that his young kitty had lost his battle to cancer and become anemic from the chemo treatments. Robin has let him go despite her strong love for him. In this case, she loved him enough to understand that his force was fading.

I am sorry that he is gone, and she has to cope with loss. But I am not sorry that he lived with her and he lived large. He lived loved, and she kept in touch with me faithfully every month, sending me updates.  I hope to still hear from her. I enjoy her letters when they arrive in the mail and I know her to be a no-nonsense type of woman with a huge heart.I am glad that through this adoption of the kitty with the gooey eye, that she and I found a friendship. And that Jet-Eye was allowed to be in her life along with her bull mastiff and her residence cat Clancy. He had quite the life!