Cat Labeled ‘Feral’ Meows Up a Storm Until Someone Pets Him

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One August, I was volunteering for Spay Day. There were over 100 kitties there that day and a lot of meowing was heard. The feral kitties were separate from the adoptables, and one tiny “feral” kitty was meowing so loud he was heard above all the others. I stopped a few times to try and calm him down, and finally, I put my fingers in the cage (a no no with the ferals) and the kitty just purred like crazy, rubbing my fingers with his face.

Clearly he was not a feral cat and he was telling me he was in the wrong place. After pointing this out to two of the people running the event, I was told to speak to the director of the facility, who agreed he was in the wrong place. However, they did not have a place to foster him, so he was to be neutered, get his shots, have his ear tipped, and get released back where he was found. So I took him home to foster until we could find him a home.

Well, he never left. We changed his name from Bismark to Gavin after Tommy Gavin from Rescue Me. My other kitties fell in love with him and they convinced me he needed to stay. Just as he turned 4-years-old, he needed a PU surgery (Perineal Urethrostomy) and then he needed a corrective surgery, as the scar tissue closed him up again. That only lasted a couple of days and he was blocked again.

The surgeon only gave him a 50% chance of surviving a third surgery, so I put on my shoes and was getting ready to leave to go say goodbye to him and have him put to sleep. I couldn’t do it. I told the surgeon to go ahead with the surgery. If he was going to die, at least we’d tried everything.

He survived the surgery. Here Gavin is nine months later (tan and white) resting with his brother, Joey, who just had three teeth pulled. He is the life of this house. We’d be lost without him.

Story submitted by Rita from Schaumburg, Illinois.

This story was originally shared on The Animal Rescue Site. Share your very own rescue story here!