Nellie “Bean” Nelson
Man plans, God laughs; our plan was to have three cats in our household.
About two months ago, a face appeared on the website of the Pennington County Humane Society. It was an white kitten with orange markings and a creamsicle tail. She had seen some rough times as a stray and had been brought in by a good samaritan. The picture we saw was a kitten, down on her luck, with an abrasion on her tiny nose. We love cats and this little kitten needed some love.
I called a friend at the humane society that day. I asked that when the kitten was discharged from the veterinarian and was ready for adoption, we would like to be considered. It took several weeks of care at the humane society before she was ready to try a new home. Society staff nursed her back to health with expertise and began her socialization process after which we received our call.
We picked “Nellie” up about a month ago. The picture of us meeting Nellie was good for my soul. We all looked a little scared but hopeful. At first, we kept her in her own space so she could get used to her new environment and so we could feed her kitten food while the others cat adult food Lisa and I took turns sitting with her in an oversized chair with lots of blankets. The first of many visits required that we first catch Nellie before we could sit with her. She soon began using the chair as a bed and would just move over to allow us to sit by her. We kept a television on to keep company, mostly “Little House on the Prairie” reruns and some Prairie Public television.
Nellie has now moved downstairs and is mostly accepted by the other cats. She spends her mornings with me and evenings with Lisa on our respective chairs. She is healthy and energetic and made her first friend with old man Clyde, the leader of our pride of cats. Her full name is Nellie Bean (like jellybean) Nelson.
This would be a good place to close this happy story with a few sentences and enjoy the warm emotions. This would be truthful however there’s a bigger story to tell. Nellie is one of only a percentage of successful stray cat stories. I’ve seen the ugly end to stray cat stories. We were slowly taming a stray several years ago and I witnessed a fisher kill this little stray. Cats are domesticated animals, continually living outdoors is probably not their first choice.
We have too many cats in this area, and we’re not unique. Humane societies struggle with a steadily increasing number of stray cats (and dogs.) This is truly a time when an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It takes a small amount of money and time to spay or neuter cats. It takes a comparatively major amount of time and money to cope with a litter of kittens, particularly if they are sick, like Nellie was when she was found.
It really comes down to responsibility. If you do not take the initial responsibility to spay or neuter your pet, a much greater amount of resources are required to do the work you should have done. Many people took the responsibility to help a tiny stray kitten with a bloody nose become Nellie “Bean” Nelson. Nellie’s is a good story, we need more stories like hers.
