(c) all rights reserved · cats · dverse · poetry

dVerse — OLN 276 — Dotty Wotty

msjadeli

Dotty in a Box 1119

Dotty, November 2019

Caged, a curiosity for languid looking
Purring to deaf ears, playing to blind eyes,
After years, she curled in the corner.

Injected, tested, excised under gas,
Waking and groggy under bright lights
After years, she shrank from human touch.

Transferred to free-range and soft lights
Swirling tails and biting sleeps
After years, she curled in highest cubby

She heard me first, then watched me
Decided, she purred and played again
After years, someone heard and saw.

 

My poem today is about Dotty, the cat I adopted some months ago from the cat shelter I volunteer at. She was a stray picked up by another county’s animal control and was kept in a cage there after being neutered. She at one point tested positive for FIV (cat HIV equivalent.)

Most shelters immediately euthanize cats with FIV. The shelter I volunteer at is one of the few (only?) places in MI that takes them in. Their rep has grown to a point where if a shelter has an FIV cat they will call us and if there is room we will take them. We had room. In addition to taking in the usually “doomed” cats, our shelter is free-roaming in an old ranch home that’s been fitted with plentiful cubbies, high walkways, cat beds, and other places for cats to enjoy their cat-ness.

The first thing workers noticed is that the male cats were after her as if she wasn’t neutered and discovered whomever did the surgery had left one ovary in (or it grew back?) so she had to have a second surgery to remove it.

Part of my learning in my time at the shelter (I started in 2018) is that sometimes FIV goes away on its own. Cats with it and other communicable diseases are in a separate section of the shelter. They are tested regularly for health status and at one point she began testing negative. This meant she was able to be transferred to “gen pop” which greatly increased her chances of being adopted by a family.

Only she didn’t. Get adopted by a family, that is. Week after week I’d see her, curled in her tight little ball, not interacting with anyone. Week after week, I would talk with her, pet her lightly so as not to alarm, and hope it would bring her out of her shell.

One week she saw me, uncurled, began to meow, then rolled around in her cat bed. She’d been at our shelter for a year by then, which is a long time for an adoptable cat in gen pop to be. I decided then and there that she was coming home with me – but not before she did.

Grace is today’s host for dVerse’ Open Link Night.

Published by msjadeli

mother, gardener, retired government worker, observer, reader, learner, bicyclist, woman who runs with the wolves, lover of music!

58 thoughts on “dVerse — OLN 276 — Dotty Wotty”

    1. My son and his wife started volunteering at the shelter several years ago (it’s right around the corner from where they live) and learned a lot. When I retired in 2018 I started volunteering to spend more time with them (and helping) and am learning a lot in the process. Glad you enjoyed the story, thank you.

      Like

      Reply

  6. Dotty-Wotty indeed; a lovely slice of your life. I liked that your explication was four times longer than the poem, and it richened the poetics. We are at an age where a new pet would out live us, so we enjoy other’s pets.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  9. Oh, this is so beautiful, the story and how you wrote the poem. So much emotion and love. The back story made me tear up especially. And Dotty is so adorable, those bright green eyes! She and Mlady still making friendly progress? 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  18. As you know, Lisa, our cats are rescue cats too, and I love that you volunteer at the shelter and that you adopted Dotty. The local Cat’s Protection Shelter, which happened to be in our village, sadly closed down during lockdown, although there are a few others not too far away. ‘Purring to deaf ears’ tugged at my heart. It’s the most wonderful thing when a cat chooses you out. Dotty is beautiful! .

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  26. The story that inspired your poem is so moving, an uplifting sequel because this made me so sad…”Purring to deaf ears, playing to blind eyes” but then I could see you reaching out to connect with Dotty. She is one lucky kitty cat.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.