We had a visitor arrive the first week of August. Scott was in St. Louis on a trip with some friends and Franklyn and I were home by ourselves. One afternoon we discovered a cat camping out in the bushes in front of our house. Knowing Scott would freak about adding a cat to the family, I was determined not to feed it and not to show it any attention. We didn't want it sticking around. That determination didn't last long... After 5 days, the cat was still there and I just knew it had to be starving. I fed it and we all loved on it. Franklyn decided to name her Henrietta. No clue how he came up with that name.
Henrietta decided she had found a home. We couldn't get rid of her. Scott said he was going to take her into town and leave her somewhere to get rid of her. He SAID he was going to several times, but never could bring himself to do it. We didn't want her around the house because of all the dogs that run around our neighborhood and because of the kid across the street who fancies shooting cats with his rifle. The fear of her meeting a male kitty and making babies was another reason we weren't too thrilled at the thought of taking on an outside cat. We finally decided to take her to the vet and have her fixed and then try to find her a home. A family from church agreed to take her in, so we loaded her up for a trip to the vet one Saturday morning.
The surgery and all the shots were going to cost us around $250. I have to admit, the thought of spending all that money on a stray cat made me sick, but it sure did feel good to know we were doing a good thing... Well, the surgery was set for Tuesday morning. I was thrilled when the vet's office called me around lunchtime that day and said they couldn't do the surgery because Henrietta was ALREADY fixed! We got out a lot cheaper than expected and Henrietta got a wonderful home. The family that took her decided to keep her inside and to name her Whaley.
