I call her Space Cat

(Philadelphia)

There's a back-story needed to explain it. In spring of last year, I returned from a 4 month stay in Japan, which turned my life upside-down. I decided to foster kittens for various reasons, not the least of which is that I love animals and I feel like anyone with the space and time in their life to help should try to.

The SPCA gave me three 3-week-old babies who needed bottle feeding's and warmth, but didn't tell me that they were having a panleukopenia outbreak at the shelter at the time.

For about two weeks, the kittens did wonderfully. They were growing -- they moved from crawling to walking, they gained weight, they started following me around every time they were out of their heated pen. They even started to climb my legs when I was preparing their formula! But one of them was hanging back. Not walking. Not gaining weight, and refusing food. I took her back in and they tested her for panleukopenia, which came back positive. They told me she would be put down, and the other two should be as well, since it was so brutally contagious and baby kittens really don't ever survive it.

I asked if that was the case, could I just take care of them till then? They said sure, just bring them in if they die. For the following week, I showed the two as much love as I could and tried my best to keep them going, but both died. I was devastated -- no more fostering, un-vaccinated cats could enter the house, since the germ survives in blankets/rugs/beds/clothes for up to a year.

A couple weeks later a friend called me. She said, "I heard on facebook what happened with your foster kittens, and I thought this might interest you, if you still want a cat. Yesterday I heard a meowing at my door and when I opened it, this cat walked in, curled up on my pile of laundry, and refused to leave. Do you want her?"

Apparently my friend had seen her before, wandering the streets in the neighborhood and assumed she was feral -- she was definitely a stray one way or another, and she was very skinny. She was so small, even for being about 6-8 months old, and all black but for a white spot right under her chin. I sat on the floor and made kissy noses and patted my lap and she came trotting over and curled up on my legs. "I'll take her" I said. My friend offered money to vaccinate her that day so she'd be safe in my house.

She ate voraciously! I named her Space Cat (Spacey for short) because she behaved so strangely, like an alien cat. She would follow me like my shadow everywhere I went, never jumps, only climbs, and she would lay on the floor and drag herself in circles around my spare mattress for fun. She never meows, either, but trills and chirps instead.

It turns out she was pregnant! I didn't catch on till it was too late to spay, so I just fed her and cared for her and hoped the kittens would be ok in my apartment despite the former problem. She gave birth in my closet to four little babies who all looked very different from one another, but were all healthy and, happily, stayed that way! The vet said that the vaccine probably helped her pass immunity to the babies in the milk. She was a great mama-cat and once the babies were old enough and weaned, I gave them all away to friends who had been staking claims on them from when they were 2 weeks!

I live in a different house now, a year later, but Spacey is spayed now and sleeping curled up against me as I type this. She still follows me everywhere (even sitting outside the bathroom while I'm in there), sleeps next to me at night, and greets me at the door every day when I come home. She loves people and wants attention from everyone who comes into the house, never scratches or bites either.

She's helped me through everything that's happened to me since I got back from abroad, sometimes I wonder who rescued whom.

your cat
by: Anonymous

Your cat looks and acts just like mine. The breed is originally from Bombay India...the English loved them and brought them back to England and then here when they colonized the US. If her eyes are green this was here genetic journey...if they are yellow she had one more stop in KY were Americans preferred that eye look and further breed them. The British breed them particularly with a certain head shape...she probably wheezes...you have to watch this for repository issues...they are also prone to ear infections for the same reasons. They are heat seekers, lap cats, and very social. I love my Bombay kittys ;)

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