by BB Curtis

This seems like a great time to discuss something that needs to be considered as we are voting every time, for every election, and for every office.  We, the voting public, need to vote for decency. We also need to be vigilant in gaining information about the people running for office. Let’s all remember that actions speak louder than words and be more discerning about requiring facts and proof not just rhetoric and bullshit.

I have a personal story that is not about politics but relates to this topic.

In Autumn 2019, I was volunteering at a cat adoption center and had told the owner/manager that I was in a position to adopt up to two unadoptable cats. About a month later, I took home a calico beauty with stomatitis. I separated her from the rest of the house which was the home of one cat and one dog. I did this so that I could treat her with essential oils and some herbs in her food. The short story and happy outcome was that she no longer had any issues with stomatitis by the end of a year. She was then able to free-roam in the house and become a sister to the other cat and big doggy. 

Also Autumn 2019, I was introduced to a kitten who had been fostered by one of our professional foster moms from the kitten’s second day of life. She’d been found with her two brothers, all alone with no mommy cat in sight. She was hand-fed by her kind and attentive human just like her brothers and hundreds of other kittens over the years. This foster mom deserves awards and accolades for her many years of service and charity to cat communities. However, the kitten was vicious with both humans and cats. She couldn’t be kept at her foster home any longer because she was taking up one entire room that needed to be used for a litter or two of kittens either with or without a momma cat that needed a roof and care. She couldn’t be put into general population like other kittens at the adoption center when she turned eight weeks old and had had all her shots and was neutered. She was all teeth and claws and hissing and spitting. Opening the top of her travel kennel was dangerous. She was introduced to me as “Demon Cat.”  The foster mom begged me to take her home since I had extra space to assign a spare bedroom to a single cat. This was essential to the care of Demon Cat. Allow me to add here that Demon Cat also appears to be black, and it’s already difficult to find homes for black cats. She’d been tested by the vet for all possible physical reasons that might cause her antisocial behavior to no avail. This cat’s chances of adoption were essentially zero. I adopted her and immediately changed her name.

Rachel had her own room. I didn’t want my other three babies to get hurt. One of the first things I learned about her was that she isn’t black. When sunshine falls on her fur, you see chocolate brown with distinct black stripes, known as a chocolate tabby, a rare occurrence. She is beautiful. Her irises remained dilated all the time I spent with her. To my knowledge, her eyes never looked like cat’s eyes. She remained vicious although I spent an hour or two every day in her room with her. We tried to play. I would also just sit quietly and read hoping she would just get used to having someone near her. Occasionally, she would jump up in my lap and sit for a minute or two, but it always ended in her batting at me with claws out and hissing or trying to bite me while she acted like she’d been hit with a hot wire up her ass. We weren’t making much progress, but the cat adoption center was a no-kill operation and so was the bedroom in my house. She barely tolerated me, but she was safe inside with fresh food and water. It seemed that this was all she’d ever have until one crazy morning.

Again in Autumn but the year was 2023, my house caught fire. A firefighter opened Rachel’s door and she took off. A neighbor saw her and took her in. She had a few cats. I am assuming that Rachel was scared out of her wits and then overwhelmed by the number of cats and people in the house and just backed down. I was staying with a friend until moving out of state to live with family a couple of weeks later. My old neighbor kept Rachel until the morning we left town since a couple of the people where I was staying were allergic to cats. My adult daughter and I went to my old neighbor’s house, picked up Rachel, put her in the car behind the driver’s seat in a large dog kennel, and drove roughly 1800 miles to our new home. Once there, she and I shared a bedroom. There is an extra-large dog here who is just about the sweetest furbaby ever. She is totally socialized with all the other animals in the neighborhood and relatives’ cats and dogs. This cat hisses at her and huge dog hides behind her human mom. It is now April in 2024. Rachel came home with me at 8 weeks old. She is now four and a half years old. FINALLY, she can roam the house although the dog still hides from her. She jumps on my desk and nuzzles my face, lying down and curling up cuddled to my chest. I’m allowed to put my arms around her and pet her. I have been able to brush her without the need for leather gloves. We have made progress, but she still jumps up as though that hot wire is sparking in her ass, bats at me not always with claws, hisses and runs across the room. Her eyes are cats’ eyes nearly all the time now.

Call me nuts or tenacious, my belief is that lives are worth saving. Elvira, because that name suits her and she never responded to her old name, is better than she was and will be even better over time. She’s not perfect. I’m not perfect. Our relationship is not ideal, yet. I will persevere.

NEVER ONCE DID I THINK THAT GRABBING MY GUN AND SHOOTING HER WAS AN ANSWER.

If you are not clear what relationship this has with voting, see stories about South Dakota’s Governor Kristi Noem.

© 2024, Bobbi Bartsch Curtis, All Rights Reserved.