A Really Dumb Thing

Sometimes I do some really dumb stuff, this is how I learn.  Looking back at the dumb stuff always make me shake my head in disbelief…really? I did that?

Add in pregnancy and a traveling husband.  My husband will deploy again shortly after this baby is born- his 7th deployment!  Until then he will be here and there and everywhere and hopefully in the delivery room when the time comes (When? When will the time come???)

I have a history of events that just happen whenever he is away.  Whether it’s the hot water heater flooding the house (1998 and 2007) or a raccoon that  breaks into your coop and removes the beaks from all but one hen (2000). Car accidents, broken bones, the dog dying.  If it seems like a weird, freak thing it will happen when he is away.

A couple weeks ago on a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon he drove out of the yard for a trip to Virginia.  I made the kids some lunch and as a treat set up a little picnic outside.  We were eating and saw little Sally O’Malley (the cat) in the kitchen window so I went inside and brought her out.  She doesn’t go outside.  She pranced and danced around the yard close by like a little ballerina.  It was the sweetest thing ever. 

Then I realized it wasn’t a brown leaf in the yard she was playing with…it was a brown bat.  A bat? Out in the day?  I know enough about bats and rabies to realize this was not a very good thing at all.  We put her in her cage and killed the bat- it was showing it’s fangs and acting quite scary.  I called an emergency vet that was nonchalant and hinted she should probably be put down as she hadn’t had her 12 week rabies shot yet.  So I called more vets and kept getting similar answers.  The state wouldn’t test the bat for rabies because there was no human contact or broken skin.  I couldn’t believe I would have to put our sweet little Sal down. Just because I brought her out for less than 30 minutes and she found a bat.

We kept her caged for a few days and I didn’t know what I was going to do. The last vet I had called ended up calling me back and found a woman willing to rescue her and keep her quarantined (the state says 6 months). 

This woman has rescued over 200 cats through the years from being put down.  She has little Sal in a sunny little bedroom with a big window all to herself.  No cage…it was breaking my heart to imagine her in a cage for 6 months. She sends me pictures and has marked Sept 19 on the calendar as the day we can have her back. She asked for no money or food.  I can visit her anytime.  Her selfless act of kindness has had me in awe. 

There are good people in the world, she has inspired me so much and I am so grateful.  Sally quickly became part of our family, I miss her so much!  I try and never spoil my kids but am just the opposite about our cat.  Cats should be spoiled and Sally was the perfect queen of our castle.

I feel lucky this has somewhat of a happy ending- I hope.  I feel confident she won’t come down with rabies, though with small kids and pregnancy the vet wouldn’t let us keep her as the risks are too great and I get that.  If you know Laura from Jaffrey hug her…she is an angel!