endora's story.

endora is in the vets on IV's. he thinks that while the advantage itself is not all that harmful, the resulting irritated mouth has just pushed an ancient teetering cat barely on this side of wellness over the not healthy edge. they have drawn bloodwork, but he suspects her kidneys are toast and the advantage just started the downward spiral. this is not what i wanted to hear..i wanted to hear that with some iv fluids, she would be as good as new in a day or two.

here is another thing about doing this type of rescue...almost all of our guys are teetering on that unhealthy edge. we sometimes forget it til suddenly one falls.

i love endora, and i have not talked about her much recently. mostly because she has just been happily coasting along. so for those who don't know her full story...here it is.

table fourteen

Hope floats til it sinks...

Endora and her partner Sam, were two shy and elderly cats living in isolation with an elderly human being. They ran and hid whenever visitors came. When the woman became too frail to live in her house any more, the cats lived there alone. The family came in to feed and care for them but they started to urinate and defecate in the house and the house was up for sale. It was the middle of winter in the interior with lot's of snow and it was cold and the cats were now living in the enclosed porch while the family sought options for them.

In the end the daughter drove them a few hundred miles in the dark and the snow and brought them to SAINTS. Sam and Endora did not like this change, they went under my bed and stayed there...for weeks! I shoved their food and water to them under there and every day pulled out their cat box and beds to give them clean ones. They were both black and hard to see under the bed, but their bowls were emptied and the litter box was used so I know they were alive and well under there.

Eventually they started coming up to the edge of the bed and I tried really hard to tell one black cat from the other. But it wasn't until they finally came out that I could see that Endora was a bit smaller and rounder than Sam. Soon, they started to sleep on my bed. Sam would drool in my neck and Endora would wrap herself around my head.

One day they discovered a new game...it was called "Torture Maude," they would park themselves in front of the bed and block her being able to jump up. Maude would throw herself to the floor, rolling and screaming in frustrated husky hysteria and Sam and Endora discovered they had power... which they did not realize before they upset an old big baby dog.

It took a little while longer but one day, Sam and Endora left the bedroom and sat out in the hall. Several months later they moved into the kitchen and took over the counter by the sink. They slept together in their very own bed, right smack in the middle of things.

Sam died a couple of years ago, he had a massive heart attack. Since then Endora has continued to be our counter cat. I am pretty sure that except for a few times when she accidently fell off, her feet have not really touched the floor by choice, in more than a year. She has her bed and her food and water bowls, she even has her litter box up there.

She now shares her bed sometimes with Harrison buit I think that is just because he occasionally sneaks his butt in.

Endora is a lovely cat, she is a great kitchen sink buddy. She sings and chats and purrs away whenever you are washing the dishes or filling the bleach buckets and water pails. Because she chose the most human accessible location, I am pretty sure she gets the most kisses around here. That counter seems really empty right now while Endora is ill and on IV's at the vets.

The whole time at the clinic, thru the entire exam...she purred and softly head butted my face, we really are very good friends.

So tonight I am hoping that hope will continue to float for a little, seventeen year old, plain black cat who is one of the sweetest creatures I have ever met.

I love you Endora, please get well and come home again.

Hopefully Endora will be fully recovered and eager to host her table at our fundraising event.