Dear Friend,

Hattie was living on her own in my neighborhood for many years before we met.

We first connected when I started putting food out in my back yard because someone had dumped 2 young kittens, and I was trying to catch them.

Hattie and a number of other feral cats came for the food, and I fed everyone.

Hattie was different from the other cats. Hattie would make eye contact. To me this meant she was "semi-feral," i.e., she probably had had a home at one time.

I borrowed a have-a-heart trap in which I put food on mornings when I knew I could take a cat who went into it to a vet for spay/neuter and some parasite relief.

I put out a telepathic broadcast on the mornings when I put the food inside the trap. "Only come now if you want to be spayed or neutered. Otherwise, I'll let you know when the food is back in the regular feeding station."

Hattie was the only cat who entered the trap.

After her surgery, I kept Hattie in the house for 2 days. It was a cold January, and the instructions were to let her out after she ate, peed, and pooped. But by Sunday morning I just couldn't tolerate the rage emanating from the room where she was confined to a large cage. She wanted OUT!

Since Hattie was eating and drinking and had urinated, I felt that letting her go was a good choice. It was warm enough and she might need to move more to get her bowels functioning.

I gently nudged Hattie into a cat carrier using a yard stick, as she could not be touched and I didn't want to be buzz-sawed. I told her that I was going to set her free.

Then I took the carrier outside, and opened the door. She took off as fast as she could go. I figured I'd never see her again.

Six months later, Hattie was back asking for food. Even tho' she'd been given an injection for parasites, she was full of them again. So I started feeding Hattie and was able to deworm her because she didn't care if the food had bitter medicine in it.