South Paw

I am teary-eyed right now. You see there is a stray/feral cat I take care of, that we dubbed South Paw. About a year ago, maybe a little more than a year, a new cat wandered onto our street. He was small and solid black, but at the time he seemed healthy and in good condition. He started sneaking into Mama’s food dish, our feral cat and mother to four of my babies.

We trapped her and fixed her and then released her back into the neighborhood. She too is a sold black cat and at first, when South Paw arrived we thought he was she. Well, when we realized his ear was not clipped, we knew we had a new cat on our street.

We never try to shoo strays away. As most strays come for a season and then move on. Or I try to catch them and take them to shelters or get them fixed and released. 

Well, not to long after South Paw showed up, he got injured. I had been making progress in gaining his trust, when it appeared he had broken his left foot, hence why we named him South Paw. It was an easy way to identify him and frankly I always thought that was a cute name for lefties. It fit him and so it stuck.

Anyways, I have no idea what happened to him, but I wanted desperately to catch him and have him looked at, but of course now you can’t get anywhere near him. I would try to trap him, but there are four cats that belong to neighbors and Mama. My luck would be catching them instead. And not to mention, South Paw tends to vanish for periods of time. 

Actually he has been missing for a couple of months now and I had begun to wonder if something had happened to him. He has been walking on a broken foot for nearly a year and he is so frail. The little thing eats, but never gains weight. I worry he could be sick. But just when you think he is gone for good, here comes round again and that is what he did, come the week before Halloween. 

But tonight as I sat the bowl of water and food on my porch, he showed up and once more I found myself in tears. A year later his leg has almost fully healed. He still has a limp, but he can actually walk on his left foot again. It has been a long and painful injury I am sure he has had to endure. I watched him through my peep whole has he walked up to the dish and began to eat. I feel so bad for him. He is just so skinny and I am not sure he can make it through another winter, but he won’t let me help him. It is so hard to watch. I want to run out and pick him up, show him what love is, but I can’t. I won’t give up on him though. I will continue to put food out and hope and pray he eats is fill. I also hope and pray, one day…one day, he will come to me. Even if it is just to say… goodbye.

South Paw is a resilient cat, but he has suffered so much. I wish I could do more for him. Sometimes I feel so powerless and I hate it.

It is a curious thought that you could love another creature so much and never even have touched it’s fur or fed it a treat from your hand, but I do. I love the little bugger and I watch over him as best as I can. One day though, one day…

-Dare