Trey - a Lost Cat Comes Homes

As an abandoned kitten, Trey got her name due to her unusual coloring.  Part orange and black calico cat, she had a rear quarter totally black, one leg that was yellow tiger striped , and one white leg.  She was three cats in one.

Though I found a home for her, Trey came back to me a few weeks later after being attacked by the family's dog.  One front leg was badly damaged and her adoptive family wasn't willing to take her to a vet.

As the nerves were damaged, my vet amputated the leg and Trey made her home with me.  As she healed, the cat seemed to adapt very easily to having only one front leg.  She thrived and grew into a beautiful and loving pet.

I prefered to keep this tripod cat indoors, but she wouldn't have it.  She loved to spend warm afternoons in the fenced back yard and occasionally would climb over the fence to visit a couple neighbors.

Three weeks before Hurricane Katrina, Trey disappeared.  Day after day I called for her and this cat that usually came running to her name was simply gone.  It seemed likely she had journeyed too far and had a run-in with a neighborhood dog or perhaps a car.  With her one front leg, Trey wasn't a fast cat at all.

With Hurricane Katrina headed directly for my area, I loaded my pets in the car and evacuated.  Again I called for Trey, but had little hope of seeing her again.

One month later - I returned to the Coast to repair my home and help with the rebuilding.  The first night home I was exhausted.  My two dogs and four cats were inspecting the changes in their yard and home and seemed as happy to be back as I was.

Two days later, at 4 AM, my dogs woke me barking wildly.  This was not a usual thing as they always slepts through the night.  The dogs insisted on going out and when I opened the door they immediately ran to the far end of the patio and  lowered their heads to sniff at something laying there.

It was Trey.  Almost 8 weeks gone - and she had made her way home.  This cat had weighed 18.5 lbs prior to disappearing - and now was just fur and bones.  I picked her up gently ...she was too weak to hold her head up.

When my vet arrived at his office at 6 am, I was waiting for him.  When he saw Trey's condition he didn't think she had a chance to live.  Her weight was barely 4 lbs. and it seemed kindest to just put her to sleep.  As we stood discussing what to do, Trey started to purr.  It was the loudest purr I'd heard from any cat. 

It seemed she wasn't ready to give up yet - so we decided to give her a chance.  For a week, my vet kept her in his hospital with IV's for fluids and nutrients and antibiotics.  Her liver was failing, her kidneys were shutting down - but she didn't die.

When I brought her home, I had little hope.  This little cat had gone from 18.5 lbs to 4 lbs, we had no idea what she had been eating and drinking but knew that ground water was highly polluted following Katrina.

She seemed to have no interest in food yet I kept forcing the medicines down her and carried her with me constantly to keep her warm.  After three days, she slipped out the cat door and disappeared.  I called the vet and we felt she had gone off to die as cats will do.  We had done everything we could - but it seemed we didn't get to her in time.

Two days later, she was back.  We think she did go off to die but then the medications kicked in and started working.  She came back in through the cat door, went straight to the cat food and started eating on her own for the first time.

It took several months to unravel the mystery but it seems Trey was accidentally closed into a small storage building by a neighbor a few houses away. The neighbor said he did not re-open that building until just before evacuating - and a cat ran out when he opened it.  He was one of the last to leave so Trey had to survive on whatever she could find for the next month - after a diet of run-off water and mice or bugs in the storage shed.

Even more amazing - this little cat managed to shelter from a Hurricane that destroyed most of buildings and homes in this area.  How frightened she must have been spending 12 hours with winds of 140 mph and waters rising 20+ feet above normal tides.

What impressed me most was that Trey would manage to come home - I'm sure she'd been there many times in the month I was gone, but she didn't quit.  She used the last bit of strength she had to come home one more time.

Trey no longer goes outside much at all.  She ventures onto the patio on sunny days but seems to panic after a few minutes and rushes back into the house.  That is the only lasting effect of her adventures.  With a good diet and medications, her liver and kidneys began functioning again - and she's now perfectly healthy at 18 lbs.