Kindness for Cats: Guest writer, Abby Wilpers.

Thank you Abby!

"Be Kind - Adopt an Animal! Be Careful - You Might End Up With Three"

Hello, my name is Abby. And I am a cat lady.

Not the kind of cat lady who loves cats. Cats are ok I guess. I like dogs more. I like hampsters less. But I have three cats, so I guess I'm a cat lady.

It hasn't been easy coming to terms with this. It's not really a desirable title. Cat lady. Sometimes I lie to people about how many cats I have. But I feel safe here at AKK, so I'll tell the story of how The Zoo - as Michael calls it - came to be.  

Our first cat, Harlem, was abandoned. She wore a sad little plastic collar with no tags and cried outside our window for an entire summer. She was living on the roof of an abandoned garage surrounded by barbed wire (gotta love Washington Heights). I'd toss food out to her, but as the weather started to get colder and no one claimed her I felt I had to do more. So one day I climbed through the barbed wire and onto the roof. Not the smartest. But I managed to coax her into a cat carrier with treats and water. 

Drama, our second cat is from the ASPCA. He's a disaster. But a lovable one. His owner died and we adopted him in the hopes that Harlem would like a friend. We were wrong. 

I found Georgie, our third cat, in the basement of our apartment building. She had snuck in through the alley and escaped all the other ferrel cats, who could have easily eaten her in one bite since she was a tiny kitten. She was dirty and starving and sitting on top of a mattress that was being thrown out (again, gotta love Washington Heights). With two cats already, I tried to walk away. But if there is any kind of kindness that is most important in this world, I think it's giving someone a home.

So I have three cats. And I love them. I promise I won't take in any more! But they make us laugh and they snuggle with us. So the kindness goes both ways .

 That's Georgie right after I took her in. So dingy and grateful. And there's her today.