Goodbye Tabitha

Tabitha, Slurpy and Prancer, after I retrieved them back from Heartland the first time. Tabitha and Prancer went back to Heartland, once well, were spayed and Prancer was adopted out. Tabitha became ill again, following her spay, and, mid July, returned to me. She got over her cold and was adopted by a family leaving on vacation. I agreed to hold her as "their cat" until they returned, almost an entire month. Today, they came and got her. For all the work and money put into Tabitha, by me and by Heartland, the adoption donation I got? $20. Yup.

I remember up at the Lebanon trailer park, when Mom of Machi brought me her terribly dehydrated kittens, how the people on the porch of one trailer were talking, loudly, as drinking people often do, about how much money I"d be making off rescuing then selling those kittens. Inside myself, I wanted to lash out or laugh at their ignorance, born of justification of negligent behavior on their part. But I kept silent, knowing my words would be wasted.
This is beautiful smart Tabitha, prior to adoption, worth the effort, regardless of everything.
And this beautiful young Lynx Pt. Siamese, was Tabitha's mom. She was spayed and returned to the colony outside Lebanon. I trapped 41 cats there alone, to be fixed. 18 of those, the kittens, all ill, I took out never to return. Two of them, the bottle babes who laid in water 24 hours screaming, died, of hypothermia. The other 16 are still alive and most are now in homes. All were fixed prior to adoption so they, at least, will never begin a situation of suffering such as the one they lived in before they were saved from certain death.