He showed up at our house a couple months ago looking like he hadn't eaten in some days, had been banished to the outside world & skiddish like he hadn't been treated well.
After a week or so of feeding him and letting him out to galavant he had started to look & act better. One Saturday he was gone way longer than he had been on previous days. Hours & more hours went by until we had resigned ourselves to his not coming back. Although we did leave the garage door cracked open... Just in case. Every hour or so one if us would check the garage for phantom sounds we'd heard until finally Bart was there... cowering in his makeshift house. He didn't want to be bothered so we left him be.
The next day I was taking pictures of him to put up flyers to find his parents when I realized why he had not wanted bothered the night before. Something or someone had hurt him. He has a large infected gash on his back leg, a cut across his elbow that look like it severed it & a puncture wound right above it that was caused by either a fang or a claw. Beings that the Husband & I are huge animal people we were extremely upset & agreed to take him to the Vet the next day regardless of the cost. Ok... So we did put a limit on it but we both knew that neither of us would stick to it if it was the difference between life & death.
Larry took Bart to the Vet explaining that we had rescued him & were looking for his parents. The Vet said it looked like another animal had gotten ahold of Bart but the damage want as severe as we had worried it was. He also have us a pretty decent discount. They treated him as well as they had our other pets stitching him up, giving him meds & sniping off his balls all for the low price of $350.00.
Larry & I sat and talked about if we should keep Bart. None of the no kill shelters had room for him & we sure weren't going to take him to the pound. Not before the Vet bill & certainly not after. But we worried how he would do with our other houseguests. 2 dogs, 3 cats. All but 1 rescues.
Fast forward.... Bartholomew is asleep on the bed. Wore out from wrestling with Destin (I've had him for 9 yrs). They're like brothers, chasing & grooming each other. He also chases Axl (the 4-5 yo rescued Pomeranian) & vies for my attention with him. He tries to rub on Dallas (Larrys poodle who is 12yo) but usually Dallas just walls off. He & Spot (the neighbor cat who won't go home) have finally called a truce & can be near ea other with out hell breaking lose.
Bartholomew barely sheds, has a great demeanor, let's me hold him (which the other cats won't), rub his belly & generally wollar him like a puppy. He has turned out to be a great cat. He is still Gunn shy if other folks to the point if freaking out & hiding but I'll give him a pass since his life has been kinda shitty for a minute.
I'm still unsure what his middle name is. I was going to call him Mew but Bart has stuck. Any suggestions?
