Posted on 03/06/2010 5:14:21 AM PST by JoeProBono
David E. Gregory had given his cat up for dead, or at least lost.
Gregory, a native New Yorker who now lives in Omaha, had found and adopted the small black stray in the summer of 2007. He named the cat Troy for his hometown in New York. The good-natured Troy settled in, snuggling on the couch with Gregory, and getting along fine with the other cat, Jeter.
Then one day in May 2008, while Gregory was showering, Troy pushed open a door screen at Gregory's apartment and padded out of his life. Gregory, 41, scoured his southwest neighborhood. He put up posters. He called the Nebraska Humane Society daily, then every few days, then once a week or so. He went to church and prayed.
Six months passed with no sign of the small black cat. Then a year. Advertising Gregory's hope already was fading before this winter. Then came blizzards and cold not fit for man, let alone a 10-pound beast with short hair and no front claws.
“I wondered if he was alive, or if he froze to death,” Gregory said. “I wondered about him this winter when a lady's dog was found frozen to death.”
Then Thursday evening, Gregory found a note on his door when he returned home from coaching track practice at Concordia Junior-Senior High School. The note was from the Humane Society. It said they had found his cat.
“I was just shocked,” Gregory said. “I read it, and I was like, it kind of startled me, because I didn't know what they were talking about. . . . I couldn't believe it.”
It was too late to call the Humane Society Thursday. Gregory couldn't sleep at all that night.
He dialed first thing in the morning, and left a message. He called again at 8 a.m. He reached the adoptions department at 10 a.m. He arranged to go in and pick up Troy.
Gregory learned the story of how Troy was found. Someone had called the Humane Society Thursday and reported a stray cat near 93rd and Q Streets, within a mile of Gregory's home.
The Humane Society picked up the cat. It was healthy. Chances are, Humane Society spokeswoman Pam Wiese said, some well-meaning person had been taking care of the cat.
Humane Society workers scanned Troy for a microchip. Not all owners have one implanted. But Troy had one. And it said he belonged to David E. Gregory.
His phone number had changed. So an animal control officer went to Gregory's apartment and left a door hanger.
A flat tire Friday postponed the reunion a little longer. But early in the afternoon, he picked up the little stray, again.
“I recognized him,” Gregory said. “I don't know if he recognized me. I picked him up, and he was kind of nervous.”
He took Troy home. He showed him the litter box. Troy and Jeter smelled each other. Gregory left for track practice, still a little flabbergasted.
“I can't believe,” he said, “that he's still alive, after the kind of winter we had.”
: )
Awwwww. Nice story. I hope they live happily ever after.
Of course, somebody in the neighborhood is stapling up posters today, looking for his lost black cat...
LOL! Too true.
Microchips are good but only sissies declaw their cat. (Why don’t they pull out all their teeth, while they’re at it?)
I knew someone that was going to declaw their cat and they kept telling me it wouldn’t hurt them. So I suggested that they also have the surgery and remove the ends of their fingers down to the first knuckle. It won’t hurt them, right? They didn’t declaw their cat.
Cats are like that. Not all, but many cats go from home to home as it pleases them and as they find friendly people and good eating. I've had dozens of cats, and their loyalty is not unwavering. I've had cats disappear, only to come back a few months later like it's no big deal.
Right now I have no cat or dog, because pets are not allowed where I rent. But there is a well-fed solid black male cat who comes around just for a visit. He doesn't need to be fed. He just makes the rounds, staying a night here, a night there. No collar or tags. He is not feral at all, used to being pampered.
Bingo. My first thought. To a cat one can opener (human) is as good as any other.
I had a stray show up at my door one time. It stayed for about two years and then went on its merry way again.
Years ago I had a black cat walk through my open front door, hiss at my dog, jump up on my couch, turn on his back and fell sound asleep. He lived with me about a year, surviving a company transfer then one day disappeared. Six months later on the day I was leaving Ata to move to Nashville, as I was locking the patio door and closing the Uhaul that cat jumped up on my patio, rolled over on his back, let me scratch his tummy and then got our of Dodge.
I was within 5 minutes of leaving there. Cats are unique.
Dogs are wonderful.
I had one of my kitties declawed. He is gone now, may he RIP, but I have 3 more cats and I will never have them declawed. It is barbaric.
The last one passed away in 1996 and was stuffed and included in the Squadron Museum!
I was stationed at Minot in the early 70s and would join the pilots when they would feed the Kats!
It didn't, you're just another free meal.....
Hee hee hee — if only they could!
Good job!
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