Who Is this Kitten?

I love a good mystery.  I sure do.

When this photo popped up on Lost and Found Pets in my town, I went over to look for her, even though it was after 11:00 p.m. the night before I was to take Raven up to FFR.   I found nothing.  Where she was supposed to be, by Great Clips in the mall, automatic sprinklers were wetting down everything, even the sidewalk.  She allegedly had been running across busy 14th to the Safeway parking lot then back to the mall parking lot.

This was the photo of her in the mall parking lot, taken by a concerned citizen, then posted on lost and found pets.

So I take Raven up then have to sleep off my late night kitten search adventure.  Yesterday afternoon, however, I stopped in at Big Lots which is near Safeway and was chatting with the clerk who also had seen the kitten post.  I was reminded of the torti I had seen behind Grocery Outlet in April.  This had happened after yet another post in lost and found pets, about two starving cats in the Grocery Outlet parking lot.  I'd gone to look.  What I saw behind Grocery Outlet was a classic torti hanging with a big huge dominant gray tabby male, who had a collar.   I figured they were mating.  I didn't know if they were owned or not and had to let it go.  Except I alerted folks in the area who might see them and who might know if they were owned or not.

These were the two cats seen in April in the parking lot of Grocery Outlet.  Again, the photo was taken by a concerned citizen.

I finally tracked down the male behind a house two streets away, being fed by someone I know who loves cats.  She'd named him Gandolph and now feeds him.  I then got him fixed.

Gandolph

I wondered about the torti though and had looked for her, like I'd looked for the male, and wondered if she'd have kittens somewhere, who would likely die.  Now I wondered if the black kitten was her sole surviver and after talking to the Big Lots woman I drove over to check behind the Grocery Outlet, where I'd seen Gandolph and the torti together.  And low and behold, there's the black kitten, trying to get into the dumpster for food.  The torti is right there too.  I put out a handful of dry food, to keep them there, then go home and get traps.

I return and trap both within minutes.

But.......

That little black kitten has a right ear tip.  What?  Who would fix a kitten then return it to starve and try to eat out of a dumpster?


However, the timeline fit.  The torti's kittens' if any survived, if she wasn't already fixed, would be 2 1/2 months old, just like this kitten.  I weighed her and she's 2.3 lbs.  Her belly is growing back hair from a spay at least a month prior.  What in the world.

I began to ruminate over it and think of black kittens I might have gotten fixed and returned with ear tips..  At first I couldn't think of any.  Then I did.

Only one kitten fit the bill, a female, with ear tip.  I got her fixed from Waterloo, July 25.  Could this be her?  She'd been two pounds then, but obviously, if it was her, if she somehow ended up in an Albany mall parking lot, she would be without food or water and quickly lose weight. And she'd seek out other cats, for help, especially she'd look to an adult female, like the torti.

Both cats, once in my bathroom, drank forever.  They were so thirsty.

This is the Waterloo kitten with her mom and brother, just after being fixed at whs.  A neighbor of the owner asked me to fix them and got his permission.  He rarely even fed them and she had been feeding them.  I tried to get relinquishment signed on them, but the neighbor could never find the "owner" home to get them signed.  Is the parking lot kitten her?

The parking lot kitten with ear tip is tame   The torti is not tame.  I think she once was.  But no more.  Usually it would be reverse, the kittens wild from a tame mom.  Is the parking lot kitten the Waterloo girl?  Hell if I know.  Probably though.  Maybe the torti is even fixed, I don't know.  I hope so.

Ear tipped tame little parking lot kitten

Grocery Outlet Torti

I do love a good mystery.