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| Rosa - Photos by David Kirk |
By Leigh Kirk*
Rescue never sleeps. At any given moment, everywhere in our communities, animals’ lives are
in jeopardy either in our shelters or on our streets. And it’s always the rescue calls that come in
at off hours —7:30 a.m., late at night, a Sunday — that are the most dire.
When you get involved in rescue, it kind of feels like an
infinite black hole that sucks you deeper and farther from “normal” life as you
know it. It’s really hard to get a day
off.
One particular Sunday a couple of months ago, we decided to
try and catch a break and not answer the phone. We deserve one day off, right? At
10:30a.m. the phone rang. I think we
were making vegan waffles. Two hours
later, we broke down and listened to the voicemail from a stranger named Rosa. So much for a Sunday off.
I called Rosa back. In
response to a Facebook plea for help, she had just driven 20 miles to
pick up a
beautiful young orange female cat with her front leg almost severed. A
car accident was suspected. She had since been sighted for two weeks
living
in this condition on the streets while caring for her kittens.
My phone chimed. Pictures
of this beautiful orange cat with her broken leg arrived by text. As bad as they were, they didn’t quite
prepare me for the grizzly sight that greeted us when we met Rosa. We had arranged to meet at our only emergency
clinic open on a Sunday. The photos we
took at the emergency hospital proved even too graphic to post on our fundraising
page for this kitty’s medical expenses. Her front left leg was almost completely severed and the tissue on the lower
half of the leg had died during her time on the street.
We learned further that this very sweet and brave kitty had
been abandoned in this state by her owner who had moved across town.
We had no choice but to sign up for a night of expensive
hospitalization and triage. It’s always
nerve-wracking not knowing where the funds will come from for what could be an
expensive medical rescue. Thanks to the
work and commitment of an active volunteer and the strength of her community network,
we rallied support to help cover her bills.
The next day we transported her, leg bandaged, to our regular
rescue vet. Thank God they generously
support the work we do with deep discounts, allowing us to rescue as many
animals as the money will stretch to cover. She promptly received the leg amputation she needed to survive. There was no other option. Her recovery was nothing short of
miraculous. Seeing resilience and zest
for life in the face of this trauma was a true inspiration.
We needed to name her, this was no longer just another cat
off the streets. Orange female cats are unusual
– most are male. We wanted a strong
female name for her, this orange mother, who cared for her three identical orange
boy kittens under those challenging conditions. After some mulling, we decided upon Rosa, the name of the compassionate
woman who drove 20 miles to rescue her in response to a Facebook post from a
stranger. And we were drawn to the
legacy of Rosa Parks, another strong female figure who fought in the face of adversity.
As dark as animal rescue can be, an almost constant dragging
on the soul, there are also the moments of light; the people who give, the
animals who survive and live lives filled with love, and the community members
who choose to rally and give their support for homeless and vulnerable animal
in need.
I went back to the apartment complex to find (the
cat) Rosa’s
kittens. Rosa (the street rescuer) had
asked the kids who lived there to catch them. I arrived after dark to find two of the three kittens in an old white
birdcage and the third sibling hanging close to his two jailed
siblings. Oh no, I couldn't leave one kitten behind! Saying a prayer,
I set a spare humane cat
trap that I had in the car. Little did I
realize how much the kittens were starving, so less than a few minutes
later, I
had the third loose baby in the trap. Off
we drove into a much needed sunset. Rosa
and her three boy kittens, all orange like her, never looked back.
Less than three months later, all have been adopted into
loving homes, with two of the boys going as a pair, and Rosa flying home to
Canada with her new parents. A family of
five adopted children await her, a family who understands what it is like to
overcome adversity and to find a loving family.
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| Rosa's kitties (By David Kirk) |
* Our guest blogger Leigh Kirk is the president of Forever Meow , dedicated to rescue and save feral and abandoned cats. To read more about Rosa, go to Rosa's Rescue Facebook page.
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