Buddy and me
We moved into our apartment in March of this year and soon after, we would find this small black and white cat asleep outside out front door. Our apartment building is one of many in a neighborhood of apartment buildings and I assumed someone had left him behind. Small and extremely skittish, it took several weeks before he would even come close enough to sniff at my hand. As soon as he would let me, I started applying Polysporin to his paws - they were practically raw from the cold, salt and generally living outside. I smoke outside and he started coming up when he saw or heard me.
Whenever I would see him, I'd call out "hey Buddy" and his name became Buddy. The plan, oh the optimism, was to get him needled and fixed and adopt him as my own. Over time, Buddy would hop up on my lap for cuddles and I would always take out food and water for him. I felt like a cat whisperer! Patiently I let Buddy get comfortable with me and he also got used to Tom. Then came the note.
For reasons of health and safety and overall tidiness, the tenants were being asked not to feed stray cats. Driven by concerns about fleas, disease and other critters; the letter informed that people who continued to feed stray animals would be evicted. At this point, Buddy had been in the apartment several times - I'd even given him a bath. I was hoping that my 2 cats would be welcoming but that was not to be....... despite my good intentions, things were going badly for Buddy and me.
Then came the letter that only I got. Seems that several tenants had complained that I was feeding several stray cats and there were complaints about the smell of tom cat in the stairwells. Buddy is male but I have yet to see him spray and our stairwell was fine. There was another older cat that looked like Buddy from afar and I suspect he was the sprayer. I immediately went to the office and informed them it wasn't several stray cats, it was one and I explained my intentions. Seems unfixed cats aren't even allowed in the apartments...oops....... One of the office workers was going to bring in a cat carrier so he could be taken to the shelter. We don't have a car and you need a carrier to take an animal on the bus. Needless to say, the carrier has yet to be brought in. I explained that he was still coming around even though he's not being fed anymore.
So my attempts to adopt Buddy failed. I feel like I failed Buddy. Now he's used to at least 2 people who are friendly to him - opening him to abuse from others who aren't so nice. And he's getting sicker as the days go on. I suspect were he to be taken in now they would just put him down to save costs. His inner eyelids stay half closed and that's not a good sign at all. He has a smell that I know is just infection and sickness. You can feel the heat coming from him when you hold him. His front paw is split open and refuses to heal. His back legs have patches of fragile new skin that open at the slightest touch and he's off food and water. I worry if I don't see him at least once a day. These days his time is spent mostly sleeping on the chair outside. Right now he's curled up on a blanket just inside the door. His breathing is shallow and rapid. I am afraid that soon I'll go outside for a smoke and he'll be curled up on the chair but he'll be gone. At this point I just want him to be as comfortable as possible. Tom and I have discussed it and as much as we both love him, when it seems that he is suffering, Tom will take care of it.
In my heart he's my cat. In his heart I believe that to also be true. Oh Buddy! I really tried dude. I hope the callous asshole who left you behind gets a karmic adustment.
