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In reply to the discussion: Have you ever rescued a stray animal? [View all]csziggy
(34,141 posts)It used to be that once or twice a year kittens would appear on the dirt road in front of our farm. We'd usually adopt one of the litter and find homes for the rest. They had to have been house kittens at some point - they were always clean, well fed, and usually knew how to use a litter box. I think it was a total of about five kittens we kept of the couple of dozen that showed up over the years.
One kitten showed up when a client was riding her horse. She'd stopped to adjust her girth and heard a "Meow!" She looked down and there was a tiny kitten standing with his front paws on the horse's fetlock - this massive 17.2 hand warmblood horse refused to move at all with that kitten under foot. My client brought the kitten to me and he became one of our barn cats. He always loved horses and when some neighborhood dogs were running all over the farm, he'd go hang out with the broodmares that hated canines - he knew that they would run down any dog that came into their pasture so he was safe there.
One kitten we adopted was found on the side of a road in a neighboring county by a friend. She brought him here so we could wash the fleas off and then tried to talk her mother into adopting him. When her mother couldn't take him in, she brought him back and he became my husband's cat.
The puppy was found living off of road kill on a four lane highway. I was hauling a horse back from a show and had to come to a stop so I didn't hit him. He was close to a river with several fishermen and I asked if he was theirs. They told me he'd been around a few weeks and they'd throw him their fish heads and guts. So I loaded him up and brought him home. Our vet thought he was about four months old but other than being skinny and needed de-worming and vaccinations in pretty good health.
He was a great dog - self trained herding dog - and the smartest dog I ever know. He refused to play fetch, thought it was a fool's game. He fetched once then when my husband threw the stick again, the dog just stared at him for a minute and walked off. We put him to sleep at about seventeen years old. He had cataracts, was deaf, and had a big tumor on one hip. We put three horses to sleep the same day and buried him with the horses. That day sucked.