I remember seeing her in that dinky carrier, lying in her litter pan. Her eyes were bleary, thick nasty drool pouring out of her mouth and her tongue hanging off to the side as if she had just run a great race and couldn’t catch her breath. You could smell the infection before you even arrived at her carrier.

When I peered in at her, she didn’t move except to lift her head for a brief moment. Her eyes followed me- they sent me a message: “Get me out of here.”

My vet when he first saw her mouth, his comment threw me. “Wow, that’s a mess!” And she was a mess. Her skin was paper-thin, there were open, bleeding wounds on her body. Enough so that the person who initially took her said she had been attacked by coyotes. They were wrong- coyotes don’t leave anything behind but a few tufts of fur. She’d been through a war, reminded me of the those photos I saw long ago in History class, or the concentration camp victims during WWII.

Her battle was just beginning and the war hasn’t been won…..not yet.

This morning, there was poop on the floor. The litterpans are cleaned and refilled daily. Her eyes are bright, her tongue is making its appearance and she isn’t really keen on eating. When her tongue hangs off the side, it acts like a snow shovel and the food actually gets pushed off the plate instead of going into her mouth. I wonder if in the process of her putting pressure on her tongue, she has lost some of the sensation and the ability to control it during her bad days.

But she wants to be loved. She can’t get enough attention, enough pets, enough confirmation that her life does indeed matter. Neglected for so many years, hanging on to something, she has perservered and now, all over the Internet, people are coming together and showing her that they too care.

I just emailed a vet friend of mine about her, and I was telling Deb that Shell isn’t just a cat, she is a missionary. She has inspired a middle-aged woman to stop ignoring the homeless man she sees in the streets daily in Manhatten. She has inspired a school teacher in Iowa to share my blog with his middle-grade students.

She brings out the best in people, this Shell of a cat by having endured neglect and apathy. By staying alive when others would have shriveled up and died.

We will have more bad days ahead I am sure along with some great days- and we’ll celebrate the small victories she makes along the way and know that her spirit will just keep giving people hope during a time where it seems little hope exists in the world.