True Cat Rescue Stories from the Files of Touched By A Paw, Inc.

She was such a good mother. Her kittens had her total focus. She left them only to hunt for food for herself. It was on a food search that the little tortoise shell cat, now known as Lilly, stepped on a steel jaw trap. She screeched in pain and fear as the steel teeth of the trap bit into her right front leg and snapped the bone. Lilly laid caught in the trap for hours in agonizing pain, but even more painful to Lilly was that thought of her four 3-week old kittens alone and crying for their mother to nurse them.

Lilly lay in a ditch just a few yards away from a mobile home, under which she had bore her kittens. She could hear their cries every so often. The woman who lived in that mobile home thought she heard animal cries. She went outside and was sure she could hear faint cries of kittens coming from under her mobile home. Suddenly she heard a louder pitiful cry like none she had ever heard before. She walked toward the sound and found Lilly lying in a ditch between the road and her home with the steel jaw trap on her front right leg. She ran back to her trailer and called Touched By A Paw Cat Rescue Shelter for help.

The TBAP volunteer saw a small opening in the foundation where Lilly could fit through, but it was not big enough for a person. With the owner,s permission, she and the owner knocked out the cinder blocks to make an opening large enough for the volunteer to crawl through. With a flashlight, she located Lilly’s nest. Lilly was lying on her side nursing her babies. She was trying to lick her wounded leg. She was very weak and had lost a lot of blood.

Lilly and her kittens were rushed to a vet where surgery was performed on Lilly to clean and close her wounded leg. Lilly’s kittens were bottle-fed for a few days while Lilly recovered. They were all brought into the shelter and Lilly’s kittens were all adopted after they reached eight weeks old.

Lilly grieved for her kittens after they were adopted. She would hang around cages that housed other small kittens and would sit and watch volunteers bottle-feeding orphaned kittens.

One day, she came over to a bottle-fed kitten and licked the milk off his face. She then proceeded to bathe the baby completely. From then on, whenever I finished feeding a baby kitten, I would give it to Lilly and she would hold it with her one front leg and give it a bath.

A short time after Lilly came to TBAP, I went on a rescue call. An eight-week old stray kitten was climbing on a woodpile in a lumberyard and fell and broke a rear leg. I took the kitten to our Vet who had to put a pin in the leg. I named the little orange kitten Tiny Tim because he was so tiny for his age. He was a feral kitten and quite scared when he came into the shelter to recuperate. Lilly immediately hung out by his cage, and would whine and try to reach him with her one front paw. I opened the door of the cage and she went in and lay down by Tiny Tim and proceeded to give him a bath from head to foot. He loved it and cuddled up next to her.

Lilly moved in with Tiny Tim and would not leave his cage. Gradually he became less and less scared. We let him out to strengthen his pinned leg and Lilly would follow him everywhere. When Tiny Tim went back to have his pin removed, Lilly grieved and walked around looking for him. When he returned from the Vet, she claimed him again and raised him as her own.

That was in August of 1998. Lilly and Tiny Tim are still together and reside at Touched By A Paw as mascots. Tiny Tim, who remained very small, is always at her side, and will eat, drink, and sleep when she does. Together they will check out every new cat or kitten that comes into the shelter, and steal another cat’s food or toy with their paw through their cages.

They are best known for greeting all the people who enter the shelter door, so they can get the first petting. This past year, Lilly started her own donation jar and charges 25¢ to pet her. She raised over $200 for the shelter in 2003. Lilly and Tiny Tim are part of the TBAP family and all of the volunteers enjoy them. Stop in and meet them when you are in town, and have a quarter to spare.