We Rescue A Human

Our human and our friend Diana and I rescued a human yesterday. I'm sort of confused because I thought we rescued cats. And human rescue is scary. Things were very tense around here for awhile.

Since my part in the rescue was to stay out of the way while our human freaked out, I'm going to let her tell the story. Here she is...

Ann and I met for the first time two years ago. She was homeless and living in her truck in a shopping center parking lot, and she needed help with her two elderly cats. The cats and her dog had been living in the truck with her, until Howard County Animal Control took the animals. They sent the dog to rescue. The cats were in the shelter. I begged my friends. I begged my clients. I begged on email lists and forums. I was still begging for a temporary home for them three days later when Ann called to tell me Animal Control had killed the cats. She said this was all my fault.

So now it's two years later, and Ann is being evicted from her home again. When I returned her call, she told me about the feral cat who befriended her when she was living in the shopping center parking lot. Soon Ann had lots of company in her truck, the feral cat and her five kittens.

Eventually, a friend paid for Ann and her cat family to move into an apartment. She told me how she and the cats walked together every night, and the mom, who is now tame and friendly, slept on her chest.

During our conversation, Ann mentioned that all she wanted was for her cats to be safe. When they were with a rescue, she said, she would mix all of her medications together with some wine and "peacefully slip away." The moment we got off the phone, I called 911 and prayed that the cats would be okay and not wind up at Animal Control. I didn't want to let her and her cats down again.

Thanks to a sympathetic police officer and an amazing property manager named Becky, the cats are safe. They're in our group home, and I hope someday Ann will be able to take them back.

When Diana and I got the cats from Ann's apartment this morning, I couldn't help but notice all the baskets full of toys and the cat beds scattered around the apartment. The cats were Ann's family and her reason for living. I also couldn't help but notice the pictures of the old cats who died in the shelter a couple of years ago.

I suppose I could say that this story has a happy ending, at least for the cats. But I'm still wondering how, in one of the most affluent counties in the nation, in a county where The Horizon Foundation pours thousands of dollars into community nonprofits to make them work for the people they serve, one intelligent, well-educated but very sick woman could fall through the cracks, not once but twice. And I'm still wondering why, when she was in such distress she saw no choice but to take her own life, not one of those community nonprofits was willing or able to come to her rescue. Not one except a nonprofit that receives no funding from anyone and usually rescues cats.