Last March, country girl, Karen, and her feral-rescue kitty, Sunny, moved into Cottage Grove, downsizing to a smaller home and yard. Sunny was used to roaming along a mountain river exploring a myriad of fascinating things. After the cat’s adventures, she would happily return home to eat and sleep in
her favorite spot.
On moving day, Karen and her husband were optimistic about their new lifestyle choice. Then things took a turn for the worse!
To acclimate 16 year old Sunny to “her” new home, they let her freely explore inside the home and garage. But one day, Sunny managed to wiggle under the garage’s door.
Karen’s heart was broken and she wondered, “Honestly, this can’t be this cat’s destiny! How can a
partially deaf, blind, and ancient kitty survive?” And Karen felt guilty knowing that the cat was not familiar with her new home’s location and city life. “I cried harder over her disappearance than when I lost some relatives,” admitted Karen. “It is amazing how deeply we care for our ‘family’ of pets.”
“I intuitively felt that Sunny was alive,” said Karen, “but as the days, weeks, and months rolled by my husband told me to give up on her. He reasoned that,
‘She is a country girl, a wild kitty and probably happier on her own.’ I just knew she was alive, and wanted to come ‘home’, so I asked that if it was God's will she would find her way home.”
After two and a half months, even Karen’s friends were trying to convince her that Sunny wasn't coming home.
“I couldn't give up on her,” said Karen. “She's been a good friend. So I kept on searching and asking neighbors if they’d seen her. I
thought I saw her by the river, but the cat wouldn't come to me. Hoping it was her, I took her favorite soft food and flicked little drops of it, like Hansel and Gretel in the nursery rhyme, making my way home.”
Then, the evening of July 12th a miracle took place. Sunny walked back under their garage door and strolled into the house “like nothing was wrong”.
But the poor kitty was skin and bones!
Karen visited the Humane
Society’s “This ‘n That Shop”, on 8th Street, and asked them “What do you do for your rescued starving kitties.” They gave her wonderful suggestions and she started in on them right away.
Today, Sunny appears more relaxed and content than before she was lost. She appreciates having water and food at her beck and call. Over the last several months, the kitty has regained her muscle tone and Karen and Greg are hoping that Sunny finishes off her life with no more
drama.
Today Sunny crawls in Karen’s lap and takes in every drop of love. And after 16 years, their once quiet kitty, has found her voice and everyone’s best guess is that Sunny is saying “Thank you”.
