Walmart Greeter to Living in the Lap of Luxury

Let me introduce our new little kitty... well we've actually had her for 7 weeks as of tomorrow June 7th... Miss Ninja!  

She just figured out after... 7 weeks... that the cat bed is actually pretty nice!

We rescued her from the out door garden center at Walmart when we ran over there late one night to pick up some rocks for our new fence that we had installed that day.  As we turned the corner BAMB!!! there she was, thin as a rail, nursing 5 little kittens.  WTF Noooooo!  All 6 of them were very hungry and thin.  I immediately ran into the store and grabbed a carrier and 6 cans of food.  John about died because he thought I was going to get someone from the store to let them know that they were out there.  As we feed everyone John said that he would run home to get our carrier as I tried to keep everyone happy with food.  They were all very cautious and would only come within arms length so no luck in catching any that first evening.  So we decided that we would leave them some more food and water for the night and come back the next evening to see if we could catch everyone.  

Evening 2:  Everyone was still there waiting as if they knew we coming back to take care of them.  I grabbed the 6 cans of food off the shelf... yes, I did pay for everything... and began to lure the kittens into the crate, but they were still very shy.  Every time we moved they scattered.  One, maybe two kittens would go in, we debated do we just take them and try again the next night, but what if we spooked everyone and the completely left the safety of the garden center.  Plus we also really wanted to rescue Mom as well.  I had found a rescue for feral cats that was going to take everyone.  If we left her behind, which wouldn't be fare, she was just going to be pregnant again with in no time.  I couldn't bare to see here again in the next couple of months out there with another litter of kittens.  We made progress with them coming right up to us this 2nd night so we decided to leave them some more food and water for the night and come back the next evening.

Evening 3: This time we came really prepared to catch some kitties!  As our secret weapon we had Ilene with us... who works with John & is an avid cat rescuer, she knows what she's doing.  She met us in the parking lot with her live trap and another carrier.  As we turned the corner into the garden center, it was quiet.  There was Momma kitty, but no babies.  We looked and looked, but someone must have rescued them before we could that night.  Hopefully someone with a good heart.  So we debated what do we do?  Just leave mom or go ahead and trap her if we could?  Every time we were there she would follow us but from a distance.  She was very thin and worn out, and we just didn't have the heart to leave her behind.  We decided lets give it a try to catch her.  If she really doesn't like being indoors we'll let her go in our neighborhood... after a trip to the vet... and we'll feed and take care of her.  And to much quick success we caught her right away, she was starving and went right into the live trap.  The only problem we ran into was that it was late now and the doors to the garden center were locked, and the doors on the side of building that we were on were also locked.  Meaning we had to go completely to the other side of the store with a 3'-4' heavy as heck live trap...covered with a bright red towel... with a wild cat in it!  Actually John did, because he had to carry it. aaHahahahaha.  It would have been embarrassing, but no one seemed to notice or care, the place was packed and no one noticed or stopped us!  

Calm but scarred in her new life.  We had to keep her in the live trap until the vet could give her a clean bill of health.

So fast forward, we got her home and she seemed rather calm for a very scared feral cat.  We took her to the vet and she received a clean bill of health, she even did really well at the vet.  We had her spayed and micro chipped.  She was super skinny, but has put on 1-1/2 lbs and she still is very small. She has been slowly acclimating to indoor life by having the run of my office, really no problem there she loved it from the beginning.  She loves to be pet and follows us around.  Our next big hurdles are 1. To get all of the furry kids to coexist peacefully 2. Ninja to feel comfortable in the rest of the house. We'll get there though, she's a super sweet  & smart cat living her new life in the lap of luxury.  No more Walmart Greeter life for you Miss Ninja! :)

She's loving her new bed... actually it's been there for 7 weeks.... once she figured it out.  

She also thinks it's a great big toy that she attacks.