Alyssia and Emrie and Julian arrived this morning at 7:30.  The appointment was for 8 oclock.    

Every morning since the beginning,  Puppy has been waiting for the sound  of Alyssia's car,  crunching up the gravel drive,  getting out,  going to the horse trailer and putting food in her bowl, tinkle tinkle.  Yesterday,  late in the afternoon,  early eve,  there was a youwling sound….we heard it and stared,  wide eyed,  the sound of a cat in heat…..calling.  And this morning,  when Alyssia's car crunched up the gravel drive,  an hour earlier than usual,  to accomodate the 8 am appointment,  

no Puppy.

We all walked the 6 acres,  calling.  Puppy!  Puppy!  we even tried kitty kitty,  just in case,  but no.  Nada.  No Puppy.  

Time ticked on and we made the call to the Spay and Neuter Clinic….couldn't find the cat.   They said ok,  another time  and we gave up calling,  imagining some things  quietly to our own selves…about her absence..like hawks maybe,  or an owl or just that it was true,  that sound had meant she was out….being a hussy….prowling.  Somewhere around 9:30,  there she was…like always but an hour late and they said bring her in.

The cat carrier that brought Tazmeena from New Mex to here is on the back bedroom bed.  Puppy inside.    They sent her home with medicine for 3 days,  and Elizbethan Collar.  Post OP instructions.  

She is still in there.  Still. Puppy,  the Fearless Arborial DogCat.  Still.  Eyes glassy,  ears out to the side, drooping.

The woman had said  "What is her name?"  Alyssia said   "Puppy Merced Hill"  and Julian said that she had a second middle name of Pinecone.   So,  Puppy Merced Pinecone Hill".   The woman was bland and said,  Puppy.   Puppy Ortiz.  Alyssia said, no,  Puppy Merced Hill.  Julian said  Pinecone.  Her papers and medicines come back as Puppy Ortiz.

It takes so little,  really,  to give Life to things.  Puppy was ready to meet her fate.  Totally ready and hot and yowling.  And we interceded.  We took her and took her innate ability to be her total Cat ness.  There were times when we talked about maybe letting her have one batch of kittens,  maybe that one of them might be like her,  an Arborial DogCat,  but us,  being who and what we are,  we took her to have all her female parts cut out of her body.

 

 

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20 responses to “sentient beings”

  1. Mo Crow Avatar

    (((Grace))) tell Puppy she’ll feel better tomorrow & a lot better the next day and so on until the collar can come off and that it’s a good thing even though it hurts a bit at first, wish I had done it way sooner than I did!

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  2. jude Avatar

    I hate the process really. But then it’s over. But questions always linger, for us, how would it have been, but for them, life just goes on I suppose. But who knows?

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  3. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    How can doing the right thing …. feel so wrong. Puppy is very lucky to have been found by people that care so much.

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  4. Michelle Slater Avatar

    wisdom prevailed///but, of is we and all about us might be simply wild and free, naturally inclined to be prolific.
    True story…there was an old woman who lived that way on a bit of land and let in what ever came her way, first one, then two then 6, 12 and twenty cats…as time went on death took some of them and sh buried them in her wild garden with their heads above ground so that they might see the seasons. Imagine the feast of other wild animals in that garden and finally the seasons would reclaim all. She is long gone and so too that garden and the multiplicity of critters.
    Puppy + + the other monikers may be the best ever cat name on the planet.

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  5. ² Avatar
    ²

    Miauwwwww…. miauwwwww .

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  6. Peggy McG Avatar
    Peggy McG

    You did the right thing. You could have had a cat explosion on the hill otherwise. She is one of a kind and you all are so lucky she chose to be a part of the hill.

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  7. dee Avatar

    and on it goes. Adore the naming.

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  8. Martine Bos Avatar

    Puppy…………..oh.
    I have done that to Venus the Beautiful 17 years ago.
    She is still beautiful…………….

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  9. grace Forrest Avatar

    she wOULD NOT wear the collar. NOT!
    but also, she has not been concerned with licking…really,
    not taking any interest in the wound at all and it’s been 5 days now. Tomorrow she will go OUT.

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  10. grace Forrest Avatar

    it is so hard for me to make decisions for animals
    that seem so “convenient” for us.

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  11. grace Forrest Avatar

    how true is this true story?????? like, Really true?

    Like

  12. grace Forrest Avatar

    you speak her language

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar

    i am so glad i had that recent experience with the
    cat under the house, right before i left…two litters
    the second while she was still caring for the first….

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  14. grace Forrest Avatar

    it really IS her name. I think she was born with it,
    just had to fulfill it

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  15. grace Forrest Avatar

    her life now will be long.

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  16. Mo Crow Avatar

    have never met a self respecting cat yet who has coped with wearing an Elizabethan collar, was wondering how she would cope!

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  17. grace Forrest Avatar

    how she coped was
    NOT. period.
    but, thankfully, she has not been bothered by the
    stitches etc. making it easy for me to be with.

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  18. Dakotah Avatar

    I’m in the middle of a cat explosion in large part created by the astronomical fees charged here to get cats spayed. Cats having babies is nature. Fixing them is economics so a vet somewhere can pay off their school loans and live in a big house. And convenience for us like you say. We’ve paid for so many to be fixed over the years only to have them die or disappear. I’m not doing it any more. Cats have a way of balancing out their numbers on their own.
    We never once put collars on the cats…probably just another item to sell.
    I’ve often debated what right I have to stop their reproduction.

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  19. grace Forrest Avatar

    in a different situation, with a different cat, it
    would have been different maybe. But we are here
    and Puppy is wild in her very particular way. I think
    there will always be the dilemma.

    Like

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