wild man's happy ending

Boys Will Be Boys

Dudley the kitty was (happy ending..just hold on) pretty rowdy. As in completely crazy. I have several friends with kitties and I was forever asking them if any cat they knew of ever (fill in the blank) and the answer was always a resounding NO. He didn't like to get in boxes, but he liked to eat them. He ripped my soft sided sauna and swung from its rafters like a cat on the flying trapeze. Freaked the hubs out when that happened. He got on top of my kitchen cabinet..he wasn't always a great hop, so he was scratching to pieces one of the cabinet doors. Fun. Times.  He was addicted to food so he started waking me up for breakfast around 4:30am. Ya know what I don't want to do at 4:30am? Be awaked by a cat. Ya know what annoys a cat at 4:30am...a 'mom' that's not dosing up the vittles. He hung from the window toppers in our bedroom one night. And knocked every component off our little tv table beside our dresser...vcr, roku box etc..on the reg. He was ruining all the rugs in the whole house. And every afghan too. I could not keep him off the counters when I cooked which was very hard. And I was terrified he was going to jump in the oven. I'm not even kidding. The weirdest thing he did though was lose his ever loving mind for about 20-30 minutes every day...that is when he would do super charged things like jump on top of the frig..from the floor. It was insane. He would run full force into WALLS.  I can't even describe all the things he did. Just too many.

Attack Cat

The thing that was the most disturbing was the attacks. Often times when I was sitting up in bed, he would get this wild look on his face and I had about a half a second to protect myself. Which is hard to do sitting up in bed. I was attacked on the face and head more than once. I called my vet's office in tears several times just asking what am I going to do with this cat???? I wanted him put down because honestly he scared the cr@p out of me. But she would never go there. I get it. But it left me high and dry. I could not surrender him again to the city because he would have just been stuck in a tiny cage again..and he was berserk and crazy from the last time that happened. So it furthered my feelings of being trapped by the situation.

Cuddly Dudley

He was super friendly and cuddly a lot of the time. He demanded a lot of affection at certain times..especially when he was hungry. The cuddly times tugged at my heart. I loved that part and I tried to love him. But the cuddly feelings were always cut short by the remembrance of times when I was cleaning up my face from the latest attack.

Just Plodding Along...UNTIL

So things just plodded along. I felt trapped. Hubs HATED him. And daughter wanted to love him because he was the resident kitty and well..that was enough for her. She got swatted at a couple of timed but never walked away with the wounds I suffered though, thankfully. One day I made a random private comment on an instagram story about the horrors of declawing. She asked me a bunch of questions and I told her we were going to have to consider it if we could not get a handle on his behaviors. I don't think she heard anything from me but that I considered declaw. In a heartbeat she told me that she was going to have a lady that runs a very prominent account for rescue contact me. I said that I recognized her name and that I knew there was no way she had time to talk to me. Within a few seconds, I had a private message from her. We talked extensively and she actually agreed to take Dudley and work with him etc..if I could get him to VEGAS. I texted the husband who was traveling on a business trip at the time. He was all for it and was looking up airfares. Like I said..he hated the cat. Over the course of couple days, the lady in Vegas got me in contact with a more local rescue after telling her my story. And very long story short, I talked to the local (well... 40 miles or so) lady and she said she had an open spot in her rescue if I could get him to her the very next day. So suddenly the plan went from 'in a few weeks we may fly to Vegas' to 'tomorrow I am driving Dudley to the big city'. I have to say I jumped at the chance for him but it tugged at my heart also. Even after everything we had been through. But overall I was happy he might get a chance with someone else.

The Big City

I texted the hubs about the whole 'I can take him tomorrow and we don't have to go to Vegas'. He was all for it. So the Saturday before Thanksgiving, I was to take him.  I woke up early and he got the wild eyed look that I knew all too well. I sat up in bed with my hands out but he tore me up anyway. I was angry that he did it but it certainly made the day easier. I was growing more and more scared of him. So was my daughter. I had told the Vegas lady and the rescue lady about his propensities and i really don't think they heard me. The day I took him, she 'tested him' and told me she didn't think he looked like he would just do something unprovoked. I said ok and signed the papers and walked out. I have wondered since that time if he just did not like me. Or if maybe I did things that rubbed him the wrong way..but I don't know what that would be. Or like I said..maybe our personalities just weren't right, ya know? I knew I never wanted him in a cage because as I told her, he would go nuts. Thankfully Vegas lady talked to the rescue here and he was going to stay with a very experienced foster mom. I have trolled the rescue on FB and about a month or so ago, he was adopted by a single lady and her bf. I am glad there are no kids. And I'm glad its somebody who knows more of what they are getting into as far as his extreme energy. I hope he ends up with a kitty sibling eventually. I think he would like that. I have obviously not reached out to the owner or the rescue etc but I stalked a bit hoping to see if things went well for him. I hope this home is his happily ever after.

Instagram Haters

I unfollowed a billion cat accounts that I had followed. I just needed a break from cats. I was pretty messed up by everything that happened with D.  One day I decided to try to follow the Vegas lady again...I really loved her and appreciated all she had done for us. I figured out she had blocked me. So she could post pics of D and talk about his urgent need for a home...and drag me through the mud as his owner in the process. And then all her minions chimed in as well...some saying pretty nasty things about me. It really hurt me. I was just trying to save a cat from a shelter and I did the best I could.

Sometimes I think about writing Vegas lady and telling her how hurt I was by her post..but at the end of the day its not about me..and she doesn't even know me so she can't be my judge anyway. It's about the cat. And everybody involved did right by the cat and I'm forever grateful..even to Vegas lady.

So that's the story. Pretty crazy, huh?! Sometimes people ask me if we will ever have another cat. Honestly I really don't know. If so, not for a while. We really need a break.